% of land · World Bank
Forest area
Land under natural or planted stands of trees of at least 5 metres in situ, as a share of total land area.
Methodology & source
How this is measured.
Definition
Land under natural or planted stands of trees of at least 5 metres in situ, as a share of total land area.
Calculation
FAO Global Forest Resources Assessment, republished by World Bank.
Primary source
World Bank · AG.LND.FRST.ZS
License: CC BY 4.0
View source Update frequency
Periodic (every 5 years)
Caveats
Definitions of "forest" vary. Plantation monocultures count alongside natural forest.
Cross the bridge
Behind the numbers, the country.
Numbers tell you the trajectory. Tourism shows you the people, the parks, the streets — the lives the data is measuring.
Keep going
Other indicators in this topic.
Continent average
27.0
% of land
Continental view
Africa, color-coded.
Hover or tap any country to see its rate.
Time series
How it's changed.
Continent average vs. Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa. Values in % of land.
Continent average
Nigeria
Kenya
South Africa
Biggest improvers
Largest gains since 2000
Burundi↑ 44%
2005: 7.6 % of land2023: 10.9 % of land
Algeria↑ 13%
2005: 0.7 % of land2023: 0.8 % of land
Cabo Verde↑ 13%
2005: 10.2 % of land2023: 11.6 % of land
Djibouti↑ 8%
2005: 0.2 % of land2023: 0.3 % of land
Stalled or worse
Smallest gains, or moved the wrong way
Open the data
Every country, latest available value.
Sorted highest to lowest — higher is better. Click any country to open its dataset detail page.
Showing 20 of 54.
2005: 14.2 % of land2023: 7.9 % of land
Chad↓ 33%
2005: 4.7 % of land2023: 3.2 % of land
Gambia↓ 31%
2005: 32.5 % of land2023: 22.3 % of land
Egypt↓ 28%
2005: 0.1 % of land2023: 0.0 % of land
Bulk download
Every country, every year — Forest area.
All 1,000 data points for this indicator across all 54 African countries (1990–2023). Free for any non-commercial use; please cite World Bank.