Most allotments and allotment gardens in Western Europe can be found in Germany, Great Britain, Holland, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland. Allotment gardens are also common in Austria and France. They were also common in the Czech Republic during the Cold War.
There were 240,000 allotments in the United Kingdom in 1873. Just after the First World War, there were 1.5 million allotments in the UK. People cultivated food on them during the war. The number of allotment gardens decreased in the 1920 - and 1930's, But they increased again during the Second World War to as many as 1.4 million allotments in the UK. They used them to grow vegetables on.
Then the allotments decreased again in numbers after the Second World War. From 1.4 million allotments in 1945 to 1.1 million allotments in 1948. Peace reigned in Europe. The free trade started in Europe again. The British could buy vegetables to a greater extent rather than to cultivate them.
The decline continued between 1948 to 1997. The number of allotment gardens fell on a large scale. There were 600,000 allotments in Britain in the 1960s, 497,000 allotments in 1977 and only 265,000 allotments in 1997. The trend ended in the late 1990s and 2000s. In the 2000s, the British became once again interested in allotment gardening. Numbers of allotments increased to a mucher greater extent.
There are 330,000 allotments in the UK today. There are + 100 000 Britons who are on waiting lists. But unlike their colleagues in Germany, Holland, Denmark and Sweden, the British are more concentrated on growing vegetables for food. The continental countries on the other hand prefer to have a little green garden with shrubs and flowers. Preferably with a little house on the lot.