Soil Quality Map: Land Capability Classes

Search any US address to see USDA’s land capability class for the soil there, the standard rating of how suitable it is for crops. Below the map: what Classes I through VIII mean, the subclass letters, and how US soil splits by class and by state.

US addresses only: street address, city and state, or ZIP.

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The map shows USDA’s typical values for each map unit^[1]; test your own soil before acting on them. For one parcel in plain language, use the prime farmland checker.

USDA rates soil suitability for crops with eight land capability classes, from Class I (few limitations) to Class VIII (no commercial plant production). 41% of US soil acres are in Classes I–IV, the classes suited to cultivation with increasing care, and 15% are in Classes I and II^[2][1].

Soil quality, land capability and soil health

This map shows USDA’s Land Capability Classification, which groups soils by their capability to produce common cultivated crops and pasture plants over a long period without deteriorating^[2]. It rates the land and its lasting limitations.

From a level valley floor in crops to steep woods and bare rocky peaks: the limitations grow from Class I to Class VIII.

Soil health is measured on the ground instead. NRCS publishes field guides to indicators such as aggregate stability, bulk density and infiltration^[3][4][5], and you can measure two of them yourself with the bulk density and infiltration rate calculators.

Reading the map

Each polygon is colored by the non-irrigated land capability class of its dominant soil, from Class I (green, fewest limitations) to Class VIII (dark red, no commercial plant production)^[2].

Class I (few limitations)
Class II (some limitations)
Class III (severe limitations)
Class IV (very severe limitations)
Class V (not erosion-limited; pasture, range, woodland or wildlife)
Class VI (generally unsuited to cultivation)
Class VII (unsuited to cultivation)
Class VIII (no commercial plant production)

The eight land capability classes

USDA sorts soils into eight classes by the severity of their limitations for cropping^[2]:

Class	What it means
Class I	Few limitations that restrict their use.
Class II	Some limitations that reduce the choice of plants or require moderate conservation practices.
Class III	Severe limitations that reduce the choice of plants or require special conservation practices, or both.
Class IV	Very severe limitations that restrict the choice of plants or require very careful management, or both.
Class V	Little or no erosion hazard, but other limitations, impractical to remove, that limit use largely to pasture, range, woodland or wildlife.
Class VI	Severe limitations that make them generally unsuited to cultivation and limit use largely to pasture or range, woodland or wildlife.
Class VII	Very severe limitations that make them unsuited to cultivation and restrict use largely to grazing, woodland or wildlife.
Class VIII	Soils and landforms whose limitations preclude commercial plant production and restrict use to recreation, wildlife, water supply or esthetic purposes.

Subclasses: e, w, s and c

A letter after the class names the dominant kind of limitation, and Class I carries none^[2].

The four kinds of limitation: erosion (e), excess water (w), a shallow, droughty or stony root zone (s), and climate (c).

e: erosion is the main hazard
w: excess water is the dominant hazard or limitation
s: soil limitations within the rooting zone, such as shallowness
c: climate (temperature or lack of moisture) is the major hazard or limitation

Shares are of all US soil acres. Class I carries no subclass and some acres have no class or subclass recorded, so the four add up to 93.0%^[1].

Subclass hazard	Share of acres
e (erosion)	47.6%
w (excess water)	17.7%
s (shallow, droughty or stony root zone)	21.5%
c (climate)	6.2%

Land capability across the US

Acre-weighted across US soil acres, land capability splits across the eight classes like this. Acres USDA gives no non-irrigated class (water and similar) are the gray remainder^[1]:

Share of US soil acres in each USDA land capability class, Class I to Class VIII

Land capability class	Share of acres
Class I	1.2%
Class II	13.5%
Class III	14.2%
Class IV	11.8%
Class V	2.8%
Class VI	23.5%
Class VII	26.5%
Class VIII	1.6%

Most cultivable soil by state

Share of each state’s soil acres in Classes I to IV (land that can be cropped) and in Classes I and II (the least limited), among states with at least 500 components, most cultivable first^[1]:

State	Classes I–IV	Classes I–II	Components
Iowa	92%	55%	28,917
Illinois	90%	59%	23,624
Indiana	87%	61%	19,555
Kansas	80%	39%	21,641
Ohio	79%	48%	33,609
South Carolina	76%	31%	5,059
North Dakota	76%	40%	59,309
Missouri	75%	18%	26,381
Delaware	74%	49%	1,708
North Carolina	72%	29%	15,315

Download the data: capability classes (CSV), subclasses (CSV), capability by state (CSV). Aggregated from USDA SSURGO; data generated 2026-10-22. See the methodology.

For the farmland angle, see the prime farmland map and the prime farmland checker. To see the capability class in a full soil report, search your address on the home page.

Frequently asked questions

What do land capability classes mean?: They are USDA’s ranking of how suitable a soil is for growing common cultivated crops and pasture plants over the long term without degrading it. Class I has the fewest limitations, and each step toward Class VIII adds limitations, until Class VIII supports no commercial plant production^[2].
Which land capability classes can be farmed?: Classes I through IV can be cultivated, with more care and conservation practice as the number rises. Classes V through VIII are generally kept in pasture, range, forest or wildlife habitat because their limitations make regular cropping impractical^[2].
What does the e, w, s or c after the class mean?: The letter is the subclass, the dominant kind of limitation: e for erosion, w for excess water, s for a shallow or droughty root zone, and c for climate. Class I carries no subclass^[2].
Is there a soil quality score for my address?: The closest USDA rating is the land capability class, which groups soils by their capability to produce common crops and pasture plants over the long term without deteriorating^[2]. You can read it for any address on the map above.

Sources

Marko Visic · MPharm, BSc Physics · Last reviewed November 13, 2026