Most of the land in US owned by wealthy white men, Jeff Bezos's holding is three times the size of Guam Island
Most of the land in the United States is owned by 50 elderly, white private landowners, the 24/7 Wall Street investigation has found. Among these people are Amazon tycoon Jeff Bezos, CNN founder Ted Turner, LA Rams owner Stan Kroenke, and former TCI CEO John Malone.
The United States of America is the world's third-largest country at 3.8 million square miles, after Canada and Russia. With an estimated population of over 327 million people, it is also the third most populous country.
The investigation found that 31 million acres or 1.4 percent of the country's total landmass is controlled by these private owners. 640 acres make up one square mile.
In some states, less than 1% of the land is federally owned and managed, while in others, Uncle Sam owns well over half of all land, the study states. The landowners use it for ranching and other businesses and most of them have inherited the land. The study based the estimates on information from published reports, online databases, tax records, and information provided by various landowners, and include only rural landholdings.
Bezos owns the land three times the size of the island of Guam, at 420,000 acres, most of which is in West Texas, USA Today reported. The 55-year-old Amazon founder and CEO is one of the richest men in the world. Ted Turner owns 2 million acres which is almost double the size of Rhode Island, most of it in Georgia, Nebraska, South Dakota, and New Mexico. The 81-year-old CNN founder's land also has the largest bison herd held privately and is used as grazing land.
The highest on the rank is John Malone with 2.2 million acres under his palm. Most of the land he owns is placed in Maine, New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming and feature ranches for cattle.