List of countries by forest area explained

This is a list of countries and territories of the world according to the total area covered by forests, based on data published by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). In 2010, the world had 3.92 billion hectares (ha) of tree cover, extending over 30% of its land area.^[1]

In 2020, the world had a total forest area of 4.06 billion ha, which was 31 percent of the total land area. This area is equivalent to 0.52 ha per person^[2] – although forestsare not distributed equally among the world's peopleor geographically. The tropical domain has the largest proportion of the world's forests (45 percent), followed by the boreal, temperate and subtropical domains. More than half (54 percent) of the world's forests is in only five countries – the Russian Federation (20.1%), Brazil (12.2%), Canada (8.6%), the United States of America (7.6%) and China (5.4%).

Many of the world's forests are being damaged and degraded or are disappearing altogether. Their capacity to provide tangible goods, such as fiber, food, and medicines, as well as essential ecological services, including habitat for biodiversity, carbon storage, and moderation of freshwater flows, is under greater threat than ever before.^[3] According to World Resource Institute in Washington, between 2000 and 2020 the world lost 101 million hectares (Mha) of tree cover, mostly tropical and subtropical forests (92%). The FAO is compiling a new global assessment due to be published in 2025.^[4]

Planet, continents and regions

All areas are given in units of 1000 hectares. Source: Food and Agriculture Organization^[5]

Region	1990	2000	2010	2020
World	4,236,433	4,158,050	4,106,317	4,058,931
Asia (including Russia)	1,394,343	1,396,679	1,426,096	1,437,999
	973,666	922,645	870,154	844,186
	755,279	752,349	754,190	752,710
	742,801	710,049	676,015	636,639
Europe (excluding Russia)	185,369	192,999	198,846	202,149
	184,974	183,328	181,015	185,248

Countries and territories

All areas are given in units of 1000 hectares. Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations^[6]

Country	1990	2000	2010	2020
	1,208	1,208	1,208	1,208
	789	769	782	789
	1,667	1,579	1,918	1,949
	18	18	17	17
	16	16	16	16
	79,263	77,709	72,158	66,607
	10	9	9	8
	35,204	33,378	30,214	28,573
	335	333	331	328
	133,882	131,814	129,546	134,005
	3,776	3,838	3,863	3,899
	945	987	1,032	1,132
	510	510	510	510
	1,920	1,920	1,888	1,883
	6	6	6	6
	7,780	8,273	8,630	8,768
	677	667	690	689
	1,600	1,459	1,391	1,277
	4,835	4,135	3,635	3,135
	1	1	1	1
	2,507	2,606	2,705	2,725
	57,805	55,101	53,086	50,834
	2,210	2,112	2,103	2,188
	18,804	17,621	16,438	15,255
	588,898	551,089	511,581	496,620
	413	397	380	380
	3,327	3,375	3,737	3,893
	7,717	7,217	6,717	6,216
	276	194	194	280
	11,005	10,781	10,589	8,068
	22,500	21,597	20,900	20,340
	348,273	347,802	347,322	346,928
	15	40	43	46
	13	13	13	13
	23,203	22,903	22,603	22,303
	6,730	6,353	5,530	4,313
	15,246	15,817	16,725	18,211
	157,141	177,001	200,610	219,978
	64,958	62,736	60,808	59,142
	46	42	37	33
	22,315	22,195	22,075	21,946
	2,907	2,857	2,871	3,035
	1,850	1,885	1,920	1,939
	2,058	2,435	2,932	3,242
	161	172	173	173
	2,629	2,637	2,657	2,677
	150,629	143,899	137,169	126,155
	531	572	586	628
	6	6	6	6
	50	48	48	48
	1,595	1,972	2,073	2,144
	963	949	935	921
	14,632	13,731	13,028	12,498
	44	59	66	45
	719	674	629	584
	2,699	2,616	2,532	2,448
	1,150	1,118	1,087	1,055
	2,206	2,239	2,336	2,438
	19,259	18,529	17,799	17,069
	940	1,006	1,073	1,140
	21,875	22,446	22,242	22,409
	14,436	15,288	16,419	17,253
	23,762	23,700	23,649	23,531
	415	357	300	243
	2,752	2,761	2,822	2,822
Germany (see: Forest in Germany)	11,300	11,354	11,409	11,419
	9,924	8,849	7,943	7,986
	3,299	3,600	3,902	3,902
	18	18	18	18
	4,781	4,209	3,723	3,528
	7,276	6,929	6,569	6,189
	2,233	2,149	2,064	1,980
	18,602	18,564	18,520	18,415
	383	381	378	347
	6,988	6,778	6,575	6,359
	1,814	1,921	2,046	2,053
	17	30	45	51
	63,938	67,591	69,496	72,160
	118,545	101,280	99,659	92,133
	9,076	9,326	10,692	10,752
	804	818	825	825
	462	630	720	782
	132	153	154	140
	7,590	8,369	9,028	9,566
	7,851	5,094	3,966	2,837
	521	521	558	597
	24,950	24,876	24,966	24,935
	98	98	98	98
	3,162	3,157	3,082	3,455
	3,859	3,961	3,616	3,611
	1	1	1	1
	3	5	6	6
	1,136	1,181	1,230	1,315
	17,843	17,425	16,941	16,596
	3,173	3,241	3,372	3,411
	140	138	137	143
	35	35	35	35
	8,525	8,223	7,920	7,617
	217	217	217	217
	7	7	7	7
	1,945	2,020	2,170	2,201
	86	87	89	89
	13,693	13,031	12,562	12,430
	3,502	3,082	2,662	2,242
	20,619	19,691	18,948	19,114
	1	1	1	1
	13,296	13,296	13,296	13,296
	476	422	367	313
	41	42	38	39
	70,592	68,381	66,943	65,692
	64	64	64	64
	325	344	375	387
	0	0	0	0
	14,352	14,264	14,184	14,173
	626	626	827	827
	5,485	5,507	5,675	5,742
	43,378	41,188	38,972	36,744
	39,218	34,868	31,441	28,544
	8,769	8,059	7,349	6,639
	5,672	5,781	5,962	5,962
	345	360	373	370
	831	838	839	838
	9,372	9,850	9,848	9,893
	6,399	5,399	4,188	3,408
	1,945	1,328	1,204	1,080
	26,526	24,893	23,260	21,627
	6,551	6,476	6,387	6,287
	912	958	960	1,001
	12,132	12,113	12,102	12,180
	3	3	3	3
	4,987	4,511	4,094	3,726
	38	40	41	41
	4,607	4,442	4,328	4,214
	36,400	36,278	36,179	35,856
	25,546	22,992	19,570	16,102
	76,449	75,298	74,050	72,330
	7,779	7,309	6,840	7,189
	8,882	9,059	9,329	9,483
	3,399	3,281	3,252	3,312
	320	429	491	496
	0	0	0	0
	6,371	6,366	6,515	6,929
	808,950	809,269	815,136	815,312
	317	287	265	276
	21	21	21	21
	28	29	29	29
	176	171	166	162
	1	1	1	1
	59	58	58	52
	977	977	977	977
	9,303	8,853	8,468	8,068
Serbia	2,313	2,460	2,713	2,723
	34	34	34	34
	3,127	2,929	2,732	2,535
	15	17	18	16
	1,902	1,901	1,918	1,926
	1,188	1,233	1,247	1,238
	2,545	2,538	2,530	2,523
	8,283	7,515	6,748	5,980
	18,142	17,778	17,414	17,050
	6,912	6,455	6,242	6,030
	7,157	7,157	7,157	7,157
	13,905	17,094	18,545	18,572
	2,350	2,166	2,104	2,113
	23,570	21,826	20,081	18,360
	15,378	15,341	15,300	15,196
	461	473	485	498
	28,063	28,163	28,073	27,980
	1,154	1,196	1,235	1,269
	372	432	492	522
	408	410	410	424
	57,390	53,670	49,950	45,745
	19,361	18,998	20,073	19,873
	1,362	1,268	1,239	1,209
	9	9	9	9
	242	237	232	228
	644	668	687	703
Turkey (see: Forest in Turkey)	19,783	20,148	21,083	22,220
	4,127	4,127	4,127	4,127
	1	1	1	1
	3,575	3,163	2,750	2,338
	9,274	9,510	9,548	9,690
	245	309	317	317
	2,778	2,954	3,059	3,190
	302,450	303,536	308,720	309,795
	25	20	18	20
	798	1,369	1,731	2,031
	2,549	2,961	3,350	3,690
	442	442	442	442
	52,026	49,151	47,505	46,231
	9,376	11,784	13,388	14,643
	549	549	549	549
	47,412	47,054	46,696	44,814
	18,827	18,366	17,905	17,445

Share of national land which is forest

The percentage of each country's land which is forested was published by the Food and Agriculture Organization in 2020 and is expected to be updated in 2025 and every 5 years after that.^[7] This data can be downloaded in bulk from Our World in Data.^[8] Some countries have more recent statistics, for example the share of forest in Turkey is mentioned in that article.

Sources

This article incorporates text from Web site: Global Forest Resources Assessment 2020 Key findings . FAO . 2020. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. See . .

External links

Global Forest Resources Assessment at FAO
Forest data at FAO

Notes and References

Web site: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations . Global Forest Resources Assessment 2020 . 2023-10-30 . ar, zh, en, fr, ru, es .
Web site: Global Forest Watch . Indicators Overview Forest Extent . 2023-10-30.
Web site: World Resources Institute . Global Forest Review . 2023-10-30 .
Web site: Global Forest Resources Assessments Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations . 2024-01-26 . www.fao.org . en.
Web site: Global Forest Resources Assessment 2020 - Main Report. 16. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. 2020. 23 August 2020.
Web site: Global Forest Resources Assessment 2020 - Main Report. 136–142. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. 2020. 1 September 2020.
Web site: FRA platform . 2024-02-11 . fra-data.fao.org.
Ritchie . Hannah . Roser . Max . 2024-01-15 . Forest area . Our World in Data.