How Much of the World Is Still Covered in Forest

Fly over the Congo Basin, the Amazon, or Siberia’s vast taiga and green stretches to every horizon. Those unbroken canopies feel infinite from above. Zoom out to the scale of the whole planet, though, and forest covers a smaller share of Earth’s surface than most people assume, just under a third, according to the newest global assessment. That share has been shrinking for decades, though the pace has slowed considerably. And the number looks completely different depending on which country you are looking at.

Key Takeaways

• Forests cover 4.14 billion hectares of Earth right now, 41.4 million square kilometers or about 16 million square miles, which works out to 32 percent of all land on the planet
• Net forest loss is still happening every year, but it has slowed sharply, down from 10.7 million hectares a year in the 1990s to 4.12 million hectares a year between 2015 and 2025
• Five countries, Russia, Brazil, Canada, the United States, and China, hold 54 percent of all forest on the planet
• Forest cover as a share of land ranges from zero in a handful of desert nations to 94.5 percent in Suriname, the most forested country on Earth by that measure

How Much Forest Covers the Planet

Forest still covers close to a third of Earth’s land overall, but that average hides huge swings between countries. The Food and Agriculture Organization’s newest global assessment reports a total forest area of 4.14 billion hectares, 41.4 million square kilometers or about 16 million square miles, which comes out to 32 percent of the planet’s land area. Nearly half of that total is tropical forest, with the rest split across boreal, temperate, and subtropical zones.

The map below breaks that 32 percent down country by country.

Five small, heavily forested nations dominate the top of that list, several of them countries most people could not place on a blank map. Naturally, none of them appear anywhere near the top when the measurement shifts from the percentage of land to total forest area.

That global share has been falling for a long time, though not at a steady pace. FAO tracks forest loss by decade, and the trend is more encouraging than most environmental headlines suggest.

Deforestation cut down more than 17 million hectares a year through the 1990s. By 2015 to 2025 that had fallen to under 11 million hectares a year, and after accounting for regrowth and new planting, net loss shrank from 10.7 million hectares annually to 4.12 million. Losses are still concentrated in Africa and South America, especially the Amazon and Congo Basin, while Europe has been gaining forest back through natural regrowth and new planting.

Which Countries Hold Most of the World’s Forest

Obviously, being the largest country, Russia holds more forest than any other nation. Brazil, Canada, the United States, and China round out the top five. Together, those five countries account for 54 percent of all forest on the planet.

Compare Every Country’s Forest Cover

The interactive map below carries the same two measurements, forest share of land and share of the global total, for every country and territory on Earth. Click any country and it turns red, opening a full profile with its rank, land area, forest area, forest percentage, and share of world forest.