Largest Protected Areas in the World

About This Dataset

Largest Protected Areas in the World
Most of the world's largest protected areas are at sea. This chart ranks the largest protected areas in the world, land and marine, by area in square kilometres.
Analysis

Marae Moana is the largest protected area in the world at 1,976,000 square kilometres, ahead of French Southern Territories National Nature Reserve at 1,600,000. The 12 areas shown cover 15,093,456 square kilometres between them. 3 of them are administered by France.

Source:  Wikipedia - List of largest protected areas

Key Findings

🏆
Marae Moana leads in Area (square kilometres) with 1,976,000 in 2026.
📊
Average Area (square kilometres) in 2026: 1,257,788  ·  median: 1,255,240.
↔️
Gap in 2026: Marae Moana is 2.4× larger than Pitcairn Islands Marine Reserve.

Largest Protected Areas in the World

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Data Insights

Numbers, trends & sources behind this chart

Admin
Data Points
12
12 categories  ·  1 year
Top Value
1,976,000
Marae Moana
Area (square kilometres) · 2026
Metrics
1
Area (square kilometres)
Period
2026
Single year snapshot

Methodology & source

Data source
Wikipedia - List of largest protected areas
Coverage
12 entities · 2026 · 12 observations
Measure
Area (square kilometres)
Last updated
10 September 2026
Compiled by
The ANYSTAT team, from the source above
How the figures are calculated
  • Values are shown as reported by the source. Nothing is rescaled, rebased or converted — the only changes are thousand separators and decimals shown to two places.
  • Entities are ranked highest-first on their value in 2026.

Rankings & Full Data

12 records · Area (square kilometres) · ranked by 2026

✓ 12 sourced
# Category 2026 Source
🥇 Marae Moana 1,976,000
🥈 French Southern Territories National Nature Reserve 1,600,000
🥉 Ross Sea Region Marine Protected Area 1,550,000
4 Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument 1,508,846
5 Natural Park of the Coral Sea 1,292,967
6 Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument 1,270,480
7 South Georgia Marine Protected Area 1,240,000
8 Coral Sea Marine Park 989,836
9 Protection zone around the French Southern Territories National Nature Reserve 989,787
10 Northeast Greenland National Park 972,000
11 Steller Sea Lion Protection Areas 869,206
12 Pitcairn Islands Marine Reserve 834,334

Data Sources & References

All external sources cited in this dataset

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