List of countries by forest area

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]^{[need quotation to verify]}

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 forests are not distributed equally among the world's people or 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%).^[2]

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]^{[obsolete source]}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%).^[3] 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
South America	973,666	922,645	870,154	844,186
North America and Central America	755,279	752,349	754,190	752,710
Africa	742,801	710,049	676,015	636,639
Europe (excluding Russia)	185,369	192,999	198,846	202,149
Oceania	184,974	183,328	181,015	185,248

Countries and territories

Russia has the most forest

Share of global forest in each country

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

Country	1990	2000	2010	2020
Afghanistan	1,208	1,208	1,208	1,208
Albania	789	769	782	789
Algeria	1,667	1,579	1,918	1,949
American Samoa	18	18	17	17
Andorra	16	16	16	16
Angola	79,263	77,709	72,158	66,607
Antigua and Barbuda	10	9	9	8
Argentina	35,204	33,378	30,214	28,573
Armenia	335	333	331	328
Australia	133,882	131,814	129,546	134,005
Austria	3,776	3,838	3,863	3,899
Azerbaijan	945	987	1,032	1,132
Bahamas	510	510	510	510
Bangladesh	1,920	1,920	1,888	1,883
Barbados	6	6	6	6
Belarus	7,780	8,273	8,630	8,768
Belgium	677	667	690	689
Belize	1,600	1,459	1,391	1,277
Benin	4,835	4,135	3,635	3,135
Bermuda	1	1	1	1
Bhutan	2,507	2,606	2,705	2,725
Bolivia	57,805	55,101	53,086	50,834
Bosnia	2,210	2,112	2,103	2,188
Botswana	18,804	17,621	16,438	15,255
Brazil	588,898	551,089	511,581	496,620
Brunei	413	397	380	380
Bulgaria	3,327	3,375	3,737	3,893
Burkina Faso	7,717	7,217	6,717	6,216
Burundi	276	194	194	280
Cambodia	11,005	10,781	10,589	8,068
Cameroon	22,500	21,597	20,900	20,340
Canada	348,273	347,802	347,322	346,928
Cape Verde	15	40	43	46
Cayman Islands	13	13	13	13
Central African Republic	23,203	22,903	22,603	22,303
Chad	6,730	6,353	5,530	4,313
Chile	15,246	15,817	16,725	18,211
China	157,141	177,001	200,610	219,978
Colombia	64,958	62,736	60,808	59,142
Comoros	46	41	37	33
Republic of the Congo	22,315	22,195	22,075	21,946
Costa Rica	2,907	2,857	2,871	3,035
Croatia	1,850	1,885	1,920	1,939
Cuba	2,058	2,435	2,932	3,242
Cyprus	161	172	173	173
Czech Republic	2,629	2,637	2,657	2,677
Democratic Republic of the Congo	150,629	143,899	137,169	126,155
Denmark	531	572	586	628
Djibouti	6	6	6	6
Dominica	50	48	48	48
Dominican Republic	1,595	1,972	2,073	2,144
East Timor	963	949	935	921
Ecuador	14,632	13,731	13,028	12,498
Egypt	44	59	66	45
El Salvador	719	674	629	584
Equatorial Guinea	2,699	2,616	2,532	2,448
Eritrea	1,150	1,118	1,087	1,055
Estonia	2,206	2,239	2,336	2,438
Ethiopia	19,259	18,529	17,799	17,069
Fiji	940	1,006	1,073	1,140
Finland	21,875	22,446	22,242	22,409
France	14,436	15,288	16,419	17,253
Gabon	23,762	23,700	23,649	23,531
Gambia	415	357	300	243
Georgia	2,752	2,761	2,822	2,822
Germany (see: Forest in Germany)	11,300	11,354	11,409	11,419
Ghana	9,924	8,849	7,943	7,986
Greece	3,299	3,600	3,902	3,902
Grenada	18	18	18	18
Guatemala	4,781	4,209	3,723	3,528
Guinea	7,276	6,929	6,569	6,189
Guinea-Bissau	2,233	2,149	2,064	1,980
Guyana	18,602	18,564	18,520	18,415
Haiti	383	381	378	347
Honduras	6,988	6,778	6,575	6,359
Hungary	1,814	1,921	2,046	2,053
Iceland	17	30	45	51
India	63,938	67,591	69,496	72,160
Indonesia	118,545	101,280	99,659	92,133
Iran	9,076	9,326	10,692	10,752
Iraq	804	818	825	825
Ireland	462	630	720	782
Israel	132	153	154	140
Italy	7,590	8,369	9,028	9,566
Ivory Coast	7,851	5,094	3,966	2,837
Jamaica	521	521	558	597
Japan	24,950	24,876	24,966	24,935
Jordan	98	98	98	98
Kazakhstan	3,162	3,157	3,082	3,455
Kenya	3,859	3,961	3,616	3,611
Kiribati	1	1	1	1
Kuwait	3	5	6	6
Kyrgyzstan	1,136	1,181	1,230	1,315
Laos	17,843	17,425	16,941	16,596
Latvia	3,173	3,241	3,372	3,411
Lebanon	140	138	137	143
Lesotho	35	35	35	35
Liberia	8,525	8,223	7,920	7,617
Libya	217	217	217	217
Liechtenstein	7	7	7	7
Lithuania	1,945	2,020	2,170	2,201
Luxembourg	86	87	89	89
Madagascar	13,693	13,031	12,562	12,430
Malawi	3,502	3,082	2,662	2,242
Malaysia	20,619	19,691	18,948	19,114
Maldives	1	1	1	1
Mali	13,296	13,296	13,296	13,296
Mauritania	476	422	367	313
Mauritius	41	42	38	39
Mexico	70,592	68,381	66,943	65,692
Micronesia	64	64	64	64
Moldova	325	344	375	387
Monaco	0	0	0	0
Mongolia	14,352	14,264	14,184	14,173
Montenegro	626	626	827	827
Morocco	5,485	5,507	5,675	5,742
Mozambique	43,378	41,188	38,972	36,744
Myanmar	39,218	34,868	31,441	28,544
Namibia	8,769	8,059	7,349	6,639
Nepal	5,672	5,781	5,962	5,962
Netherlands	345	360	373	370
New Caledonia	831	838	839	838
New Zealand	9,372	9,850	9,848	9,893
Nicaragua	6,399	5,399	4,188	3,408
Niger	1,945	1,328	1,204	1,080
Nigeria	26,526	24,893	23,260	21,627
North Korea	6,551	6,476	6,387	6,287
North Macedonia	912	958	960	1,001
Norway	12,132	12,113	12,102	12,180
Oman	3	3	3	3
Pakistan	4,987	4,511	4,094	3,726
Palau	38	40	41	41
Panama	4,607	4,442	4,328	4,214
Papua New Guinea	36,400	36,278	36,179	35,856
Paraguay	25,546	22,992	19,570	16,102
Peru	76,449	75,298	74,050	72,330
Philippines	7,779	7,309	6,840	7,189
Poland	8,882	9,059	9,329	9,483
Portugal	3,399	3,281	3,252	3,312
Puerto Rico	320	429	491	496
Qatar	0	0	0	0
Romania	6,371	6,366	6,515	6,929
Russia	808,950	809,269	815,136	815,312
Rwanda	317	287	265	276
Saint Lucia	21	21	21	21
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	28	29	29	29
Samoa	176	171	166	162
San Marino	1	1	1	1
São Tomé and Príncipe	59	58	58	52
Saudi Arabia	977	977	977	977
Senegal	9,303	8,853	8,468	8,068
Serbia	2,313	2,460	2,713	2,723
Seychelles	34	34	34	34
Sierra Leone	3,127	2,929	2,732	2,535
Singapore	15	17	18	16
Slovakia	1,902	1,901	1,918	1,926
Slovenia	1,188	1,233	1,247	1,238
Solomon Islands	2,545	2,538	2,530	2,523
Somalia	8,283	7,515	6,748	5,980
South Africa	18,142	17,778	17,414	17,050
South Korea	6,912	6,455	6,242	6,030
South Sudan	7,157	7,157	7,157	7,157
Spain	13,905	17,094	18,545	18,572
Sri Lanka	2,350	2,166	2,104	2,113
Sudan	23,570	21,826	20,081	18,360
Suriname	15,378	15,341	15,300	15,196
Swaziland	461	473	485	498
Sweden	28,063	28,163	28,073	27,980
Switzerland	1,154	1,196	1,235	1,269
Syria	372	432	492	522
Tajikistan	408	410	410	424
Tanzania	57,390	53,670	49,950	45,745
Thailand	19,361	18,998	20,073	19,873
Togo	1,362	1,268	1,239	1,209
Tonga	9	9	9	9
Trinidad and Tobago	242	237	232	228
Tunisia	644	668	687	703
Turkey (see: Forest in Turkey)	19,783	20,148	21,083	22,220
Turkmenistan	4,127	4,127	4,127	4,127
Tuvalu	1	1	1	1
Uganda	3,575	3,163	2,750	2,338
Ukraine	9,274	9,510	9,548	9,690
United Arab Emirates	245	309	317	317
United Kingdom	2,778	2,954	3,059	3,190
United States	302,450	303,536	308,720	309,795
United States Virgin Islands	25	20	18	20
Uruguay	798	1,369	1,731	2,031
Uzbekistan	2,549	2,961	3,350	3,690
Vanuatu	442	442	442	442
Venezuela	52,026	49,151	47,505	46,231
Vietnam	9,376	11,784	13,388	14,643
Yemen	549	549	549	549
Zambia	47,412	47,054	46,696	44,814
Zimbabwe	18,827	18,366	17,905	17,445

Share of national land which is forest

Percentage of land area covered by forest in each country

This graph depicts trends in changes in global forest cover annually for various regions and sub-regions.

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 "Global Forest Resources Assessment 2020 Key findings" (PDF). FAO. 2020. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. See c:File:Global Forest Resources Assessment 2020 – Key findings.pdf. VRTS ticket # 2020073010003087.

This article incorporates text from a free content work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO (license statement/permission). Text taken from The State of the World's Forests 2020. Forests, biodiversity and people – In brief, FAO & UNEP, FAO & UNEP.

References

^ "Global Forest Resources Assessment 2020" (in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish). Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Retrieved 2023-10-30.
^ ^a ^b "Indicators Overview | Forest Extent". Global Forest Watch. Retrieved 2023-10-30.
^ ^a ^b "Global Forest Review". World Resources Institute. Retrieved 2023-10-30.
^ "Global Forest Resources Assessments | Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations". www.fao.org. Retrieved 2024-01-26.
^ "Global Forest Resources Assessment 2020 - Main Report" (PDF). Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. 2020. p. 16. Retrieved 23 August 2020.
^ "Global Forest Resources Assessment 2020 - Main Report" (PDF). Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. 2020. pp. 136–142. Retrieved 1 September 2020.
^ "FRA platform". fra-data.fao.org. Retrieved 2024-02-11.
^ Ritchie, Hannah; Roser, Max (2024-01-15). "Forest area". Our World in Data.

External links

Global Forest Resources Assessment at FAO
Forest data at FAO

[faoweb-1] "Global Forest Resources Assessment 2020" (in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish). Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Retrieved 2023-10-30.

[gfw-2] "Indicators Overview | Forest Extent". Global Forest Watch. Retrieved 2023-10-30.

[wri-3] "Global Forest Review". World Resources Institute. Retrieved 2023-10-30.

[4] "Global Forest Resources Assessments | Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations". www.fao.org. Retrieved 2024-01-26.

[fao-5] "Global Forest Resources Assessment 2020 - Main Report" (PDF). Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. 2020. p. 16. Retrieved 23 August 2020.

[Main_Report-6] "Global Forest Resources Assessment 2020 - Main Report" (PDF). Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. 2020. pp. 136–142. Retrieved 1 September 2020.

[7] "FRA platform". fra-data.fao.org. Retrieved 2024-02-11.

[8] Ritchie, Hannah; Roser, Max (2024-01-15). "Forest area". Our World in Data.

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