Global Forest Area by Year, 1995-2023

About This Dataset

Forest as a percentage of the world land area by year, 1995 to 2023, from World Bank Open Data, which publishes the FAO Global Forest Resources Assessment. The World Bank world aggregate does not begin until 1995.

✨ AI Insight

The world figure has fallen or held flat in every year of this series, from 32.71 percent of land area in 1995 to 31.10 in 2023, a loss of 1.61 points, with 2020 and 2021 the only pair that is level. Set against the country chart, that is a whole world losing in twenty-eight years about three quarters of what China alone added to its own forest share in the same period. The decline is also slowing. It fell 0.33 points between 1995 and 2000 and 0.58 points between 2010 and 2015, but only 0.07 points between 2020 and 2023, the flattest stretch in the series.

Source: World Bank Open Data (FAO)

Key Findings

Auto-computed highlights from this dataset

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1995 leads with 33 in 2023.

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Average value in 2023: 31 · median: 31.

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1995 recorded the highest combined total across all categories.

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Gap in 2023: 1995 is 1.1× larger than 2023.