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Environment · Land

Terrestrial protected areas (% of total land area)

% of land area · Annual · 213 of 218 countries (98 %) · 2013–2025
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World average (population-weighted)
15.1 %
across 213 countries, 2025
Latest observation
2025
Source updated
13 Jul 2026
CountryAtlas refreshed
11 Sep 2026
Snapshot 20260911T072322Z

World map

One value per country for the selected year. Hatched = no data.

2013–2025 · 213 countries
Terrestrial protected areas (% of total land area), 2025World map of Terrestrial protected areas (% of total land area) (2025) for 213 countries, from 0.0 % to 68.1 %.Fiji: 3.9 %Tanzania: 39.9 %W. Sahara: —Canada: 12.9 %United States: 12.9 %Kazakhstan: 10.1 %Uzbekistan: 14.1 %Papua New Guinea: 3.7 %Indonesia: 12.0 %Argentina: 8.8 %Chile: 21.6 %DR Congo: 14.9 %Somalia: 0.0 %Kenya: 13.9 %Sudan: 2.8 %Chad: 21.0 %Haiti: 8.6 %Dominican Republic: 26.3 %Russia: 11.5 %Bahamas: 34.6 %Falkland Is.: —Norway: 17.8 %Greenland: 41.9 %Fr. S. Antarctic Lands: —Timor-Leste: 16.1 %South Africa: 9.6 %Lesotho: 23.4 %Mexico: 15.3 %Uruguay: 3.1 %Brazil: 30.6 %Bolivia: 30.9 %Peru: 22.1 %Colombia: 17.2 %Panama: 31.4 %Costa Rica: 26.6 %Nicaragua: 21.2 %Honduras: 23.0 %El Salvador: 8.3 %Guatemala: 20.1 %Belize: 37.3 %Venezuela: 56.8 %Guyana: 8.4 %Suriname: 14.8 %France: 28.8 %Ecuador: 23.8 %Puerto Rico: 6.6 %Jamaica: 19.9 %Cuba: 15.6 %Zimbabwe: 28.3 %Botswana: 27.6 %Namibia: 39.9 %Senegal: 27.5 %Mali: 7.5 %Mauritania: 0.6 %Benin: 36.1 %Niger: 21.0 %Nigeria: 13.9 %Cameroon: 11.0 %Togo: 27.9 %Ghana: 15.3 %Côte d'Ivoire: 22.9 %Guinea: 42.6 %Guinea-Bissau: 26.2 %Liberia: 4.0 %Sierra Leone: 12.6 %Burkina Faso: 16.8 %Central African Republic: 14.8 %Republic of the Congo: 36.6 %Gabon: 22.6 %Equatorial Guinea: 19.0 %Zambia: 41.3 %Malawi: 23.1 %Mozambique: 29.5 %Eswatini: 4.2 %Angola: 10.8 %Burundi: 7.6 %Israel: 27.6 %Lebanon: 13.0 %Madagascar: 12.8 %Palestine: 10.0 %Gambia: 7.7 %Tunisia: 7.9 %Algeria: 4.7 %Jordan: 5.4 %United Arab Emirates: 19.2 %Qatar: 15.6 %Kuwait: 17.1 %Iraq: 1.5 %Oman: 28.9 %Vanuatu: 4.8 %Cambodia: 39.8 %Thailand: 18.4 %Laos: 18.8 %Myanmar: 6.7 %Vietnam: 7.6 %North Korea: 2.4 %South Korea: 17.7 %Mongolia: 19.8 %India: 7.7 %Bangladesh: 4.2 %Bhutan: 51.6 %Nepal: 23.6 %Pakistan: 19.1 %Afghanistan: 3.6 %Tajikistan: 22.6 %Kyrgyzstan: 6.8 %Turkmenistan: 4.3 %Iran: 7.8 %Syria: 0.7 %Armenia: 38.9 %Sweden: 15.8 %Belarus: 9.2 %Ukraine: 17.1 %Poland: 39.6 %Austria: 29.6 %Hungary: 22.3 %Moldova: 11.5 %Romania: 24.6 %Lithuania: 18.0 %Latvia: 18.8 %Estonia: 21.6 %Germany: 39.2 %Bulgaria: 44.3 %Greece: 35.0 %Türkiye: 7.0 %Albania: 23.6 %Croatia: 38.4 %Switzerland: 12.5 %Luxembourg: 39.1 %Belgium: 16.4 %Netherlands: 22.9 %Portugal: 23.0 %Spain: 28.1 %Ireland: 14.2 %New Caledonia: 59.6 %Solomon Islands: 2.4 %New Zealand: 33.4 %Australia: 22.0 %Sri Lanka: 30.8 %China: 15.6 %Taiwan: —Italy: 21.5 %Denmark: 16.4 %United Kingdom: 28.4 %Iceland: 20.9 %Azerbaijan: 22.1 %Georgia: 22.8 %Philippines: 16.0 %Malaysia: 13.3 %Brunei: 39.9 %Slovenia: 40.4 %Finland: 13.9 %Slovakia: 37.5 %Czechia: 21.9 %Eritrea: 0.0 %Japan: 29.7 %Paraguay: 14.9 %Yemen: 1.1 %Saudi Arabia: 18.5 %N. Cyprus: —Cyprus: 38.6 %Morocco: 2.1 %Egypt: 13.1 %Libya: 0.1 %Ethiopia: 17.0 %Djibouti: 1.6 %Somaliland: —Uganda: 16.1 %Rwanda: 9.1 %Bosnia and Herzegovina: 9.5 %North Macedonia: 29.0 %Serbia: 14.0 %Montenegro: 22.2 %Kosovo: —Trinidad and Tobago: 30.6 %South Sudan: 15.4 %
Terrestrial protected areas (% of total land area), 2025
  • 0.0 % – 5.9 %
  • 5.9 % – 12.9 %
  • 12.9 % – 17.0 %
  • 17.0 % – 22.6 %
  • 22.6 % – 30.6 %
  • 30.6 % – 68.1 %
  • No data
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Trend

Aggregate across the countries of a group, year by year. Computed by CountryAtlas from country values — no published aggregate is used.

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Definition

Definition
Unit
% of land area (%)
Frequency
Annual
Aggregation
none · Higher is better
Valid range
0 – 100

Sources & provenance

Every value on this page comes from one of these series, chosen per country by priority.

  1. Priority #1
    World BankWDIER.LND.PTLD.ZSok
    213 countries · 2,746 obs. · → 2025 · CC BY 4.0

    Terrestrial protected areas are totally or partially protected areas of at least 1,000 hectares that are designated by national authorities as scientific reserves with limited public access, national parks, natural monuments, nature reserves or wildlife sanctuaries, protected landscapes, and areas managed mainly for sustainable use. Marine areas, unclassified areas, littoral (intertidal) areas, and sites protected under local or provincial law are excluded. Source: Protected Planet: The World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA) and World Database on Other Effective Area-based Conservation Measures (WD-OECM), UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC), uri: https://www.protectedplanet.net/en, publisher: Protected Planet, date accessed: 20240516, date published: 202405; International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), uri: https://www.protectedplanet.net/en, publisher: Protected Planet, date accessed: 20240516

    Open at source

Series-level selection: for each country the whole series comes from the highest-priority source that has any non-forecast value for it. If a lower-priority source is more than three years fresher, the freshest source wins instead. Non-chosen values are kept as alternatives, never discarded.

Countries without data

5 of 218 countries have no value for 2025.

Typical reasons: the source does not survey small territories or micro-states; the statistical office reports with a lag of one to three years; the series is only compiled for member countries of the source organisation (OECD, EU, Eurostat); or a value exists but failed validation and is quarantined rather than shown.

Downloads & API

Every observation for this indicator, all countries and years, with provenance columns.

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API example

One country, full history. Replace CAN by any ISO3 code or slug.

bash
curl -s "https://www.countryatlas.co/api/v1/series?country=CAN&indicator=protected-areas-share" | jq '.series[0] | {country: .country.name, unit, last: .stats.last, source: .provenance.source_name}'

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