The topic of this paper are changes in land use, as well as the factors that affected them in the area of Koprivnica-Križevci County. Firstly, the physical elements (relief, soil and climate) that influence land use and determine the spatial distribution of certain categories of land were examined. Given that the anthropogenic component is the major driver of land use change, demographic factors were analyzed first. In the first half of the 20th century, agricultural activity and growth of the total population prevailed. In the second half of the 20th century, deruralization, land abandonment, urbanization, industrialization and tertiarization began, which intensified in the 21st century. It is certainly crucial to consider the historical and geographical context of land use to understand these topics. It was established that forests were the main element of the natural landscape of the county and that significant changes in land use began in the second half of the 17th century and with that the formation of the cultural landscape. With the degradation of forests, the land was turned into arable land, meadows and pastures. The research identified arable land and forests as the main categories of land and as components of the cultural landscape in the last 120 years. Arable land had a variable trend, and forests a stagnant trend with a more significant increase in area by the end of the 20th century. Meadows, being the third most represented category of land since the second half of the 20th century, have undergone a decrease in area. Also, the area of vineyards and pastures has decreased and the area of orchards has increased, but none of these represent a significant share in the total land of the county today. Demographic and economic factors have been identified as the main drivers of change, but it is clear that these changes were caused by the mutual influence of several factors. In addition to the above, the changes were influenced by political (forest laws), technological (changes in agriculture) and institutional factors (College of Economics in Križevci). Despite the fact that certain changes in land use occurred, they did not shape the present-day landscape of the county to a large extent, as it had already been largely shaped by the early 20th century.