environmental2025

Terrestrial protected areas (% of total land area)

Name: Terrestrial protected areas (% of total land area)
Creator: World Bank World Development Indicators
Keywords: trend-research-200, world-bank, environment-water-forests-biodiversity, terrestrial, protected, areas, total, land, area

Compare terrestrial protected areas (% of total land area) across 213 countries using the latest fixed-year World Bank WDI observations for 2025.

Source: World Bank World Development Indicators•213 countries

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Key Insights

Global Average

18.9%

Median: 17.0%

Countries Covered

213

with available data

Highest

Seychelles

68.1%

Lowest

Somalia

0.0%

Top 5 Countries

1Seychelles68.1%

2New Caledonia59.6%

3Venezuela56.8%

4Bhutan51.6%

5Liechtenstein44.8%

By Region

Oceania27.7%(2 countries)

Europe25.6%(32 countries)

Other18.6%(133 countries)

South America18.2%(7 countries)

North America15.3%(4 countries)

Key Findings

•213 ISO-mapped countries or territories have a finite fixed-year observation.
•Seychelles has the highest published value (68.1 %).
•Eritrea has the lowest published value (0 %).

Country Rankings

Top 10 Countries

Bottom 10 Countries

Data Analysis

Value Distribution

How countries are distributed across the value range

Low (0.0%)High (68.1%)

Regional Comparison

Average values by world region (Global avg: 18.9%)

Oceania (2)

Europe (32)

Other (133)

South America (7)

North America (4)

Asia (26)

Africa (9)

Percentile Profile

The curve shows how values change from the lowest to the highest country. Steep sections reveal inequality or outliers.

0th percentile · lowest100th percentile · highest

About This Statistic

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.

Values use one fixed 2025 reference year from World Development Indicators series ER.LND.PTLD.ZS. MapTheory excludes aggregates, missing/non-finite values, and geographies without an ISO 3166-1 numeric mapping; it does not interpolate missing countries.

Methodology

Full Data

Rank ↑	Country ↕	Value ↕
1	Seychelles	68.1%
2	New Caledonia	59.6%
3	Venezuela	56.8%
4	Bhutan	51.6%
5	Liechtenstein	44.8%
6	Bulgaria	44.3%
7	Turks and Caicos Islands	43.5%
8	Guinea	42.6%
9	Hong Kong	42.0%
10	Greenland	41.9%
11	Zambia	41.3%
12	Slovenia	40.4%
13	Namibia	39.9%
14	United Republic of Tanzania	39.9%
15	Brunei Darussalam	39.9%
16	Cambodia	39.8%
17	Poland	39.6%
18	Germany	39.2%
19	Luxembourg	39.1%
20	Armenia	38.9%
21	Cyprus	38.6%
22	Croatia	38.4%
23	Slovakia	37.5%
24	Belize	37.3%
25	Republic of the Congo	36.6%
26	Benin	36.1%
27	Greece	35.0%
28	Bahamas	34.6%
29	Comoros	33.7%
30	New Zealand	33.4%
31	Sao Tome and Principe	31.7%
32	Palau	31.4%
33	Panama	31.4%
34	Bolivia	30.9%
35	Sri Lanka	30.8%
36	Trinidad and Tobago	30.6%
37	Brazil	30.6%
38	Japan	29.7%
39	Austria	29.6%
40	Mozambique	29.5%
41	Malta	29.0%
42	The Republic of North Macedonia	29.0%
43	Oman	28.9%
44	France	28.8%
45	United Kingdom	28.4%
46	Zimbabwe	28.3%
47	Spain	28.1%
48	Togo	27.9%
49	Israel	27.6%
50	Botswana	27.6%
51	Senegal	27.5%
52	Andorra	27.3%
53	Gibraltar	27.0%
54	Aruba	26.9%
55	Costa Rica	26.6%
56	Dominican Republic	26.3%
57	Guinea-Bissau	26.2%
58	Romania	24.6%
59	Ecuador	23.8%
60	Nepal	23.6%
61	Albania	23.6%
62	Lesotho	23.4%
63	Malawi	23.1%
64	Honduras	23.0%
65	Portugal	23.0%
66	Kiribati	22.9%
67	Cote d'Ivoire	22.9%
68	Netherlands	22.9%
69	Georgia	22.8%
70	Gabon	22.6%
71	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	22.6%
72	Tajikistan	22.6%
73	Hungary	22.3%
74	Montenegro	22.2%
75	Peru	22.1%
76	Azerbaijan	22.1%
77	Australia	22.0%
78	Czech Republic	21.9%
79	Chile	21.6%
80	Estonia	21.6%
81	Italy	21.5%
82	Dominica	21.4%
83	Nicaragua	21.2%
84	Chad	21.0%
85	Niger	21.0%
86	Iceland	20.9%
87	Monaco	20.9%
88	Tuvalu	20.2%
89	Guatemala	20.1%
90	Jamaica	19.9%
91	Mongolia	19.8%
92	United Arab Emirates	19.2%
93	Pakistan	19.1%
94	Equatorial Guinea	19.0%
95	Lao People's Democratic Republic	18.8%
96	Latvia	18.8%
97	Saudi Arabia	18.5%
98	Thailand	18.4%
99	Saint Lucia	18.2%
100	Lithuania	18.0%
101	Norway	17.8%
102	South Korea	17.7%
103	Cape Verde	17.6%
104	Colombia	17.2%
105	Kuwait	17.1%
106	Ukraine	17.1%
107	Ethiopia	17.0%
108	Saint Kitts and Nevis	16.9%
109	Burkina Faso	16.8%
110	Curaçao	16.5%
111	Antigua and Barbuda	16.5%
112	Denmark	16.4%
113	American Samoa	16.4%
114	Belgium	16.4%
115	Marshall Islands	16.1%
116	Timor-Leste	16.1%
117	Uganda	16.1%
118	Philippines	16.0%
119	Sweden	15.8%
120	People's Republic of China	15.6%
121	Cuba	15.6%
122	Qatar	15.6%
123	South Sudan	15.4%
124	Ghana	15.3%
125	Mexico	15.3%
126	Democratic Republic of the Congo	14.9%
127	Paraguay	14.9%
128	Central African Republic	14.8%
129	Suriname	14.8%
130	Ireland	14.2%
131	Uzbekistan	14.1%
132	Serbia	14.0%
133	Finland	13.9%
134	Kenya	13.9%
135	Nigeria	13.9%
136	Malaysia	13.3%
137	Tonga	13.3%
138	Virgin Islands, U.S.	13.3%
139	Egypt	13.1%
140	Lebanon	13.0%
141	Canada	12.9%
142	United States of America	12.9%
143	Madagascar	12.8%
144	Sierra Leone	12.6%
145	Switzerland	12.5%
146	Indonesia	12.0%
147	Bahrain	11.7%
148	Moldova, Republic of	11.5%
149	Russian Federation	11.5%
150	Cameroon	11.0%
151	Angola	10.8%
152	Virgin Islands, British	10.5%
153	Kazakhstan	10.1%
154	State of Palestine	10.0%
155	South Africa	9.6%
156	Bosnia and Herzegovina	9.5%
157	Saint Martin (French part)	9.3%
158	Belarus	9.2%
159	Rwanda	9.1%
160	Cayman Islands	8.8%
161	Grenada	8.8%
162	Argentina	8.8%
163	Haiti	8.6%
164	Guyana	8.4%
165	El Salvador	8.3%
166	Tunisia	7.9%
167	Samoa	7.9%
168	Islamic Republic of Iran	7.8%
169	Republic of The Gambia	7.7%
170	India	7.7%
171	Burundi	7.6%
172	Vietnam	7.6%
173	Mali	7.5%
174	Türkiye	7.0%
175	Kyrgyzstan	6.8%
176	Myanmar	6.7%
177	Puerto Rico	6.6%
178	French Polynesia	5.6%
179	Jordan	5.4%
180	Mauritius	5.0%
181	Vanuatu	4.8%
182	Algeria	4.7%
183	Singapore	4.6%
184	Isle of Man	4.6%
185	Turkmenistan	4.3%
186	Guam	4.2%
187	Eswatini	4.2%
188	Bangladesh	4.2%
189	Liberia	4.0%
190	Fiji	3.9%
191	Papua New Guinea	3.7%
192	Afghanistan	3.6%
193	Uruguay	3.1%
194	Maldives	3.0%
195	Northern Mariana Islands	2.8%
196	Sudan	2.8%
197	Faroe Islands	2.4%
198	North Korea	2.4%
199	Solomon Islands	2.4%
200	Bermuda	2.3%
201	Morocco	2.1%
202	Djibouti	1.6%
203	Iraq	1.5%
204	Yemen	1.1%
205	Barbados	1.1%
206	Syrian Arab Republic	0.7%
207	Mauritania	0.6%
208	Libya	0.1%
209	Sint Maarten (Dutch part)	0.1%
210	Eritrea	0.0%
211	Nauru	0.0%
212	Micronesia, Federated States of	0.0%
213	Somalia	0.0%

Showing 213 of 213 countries

Topics

#trend-research-200 #world-bank #environment-water-forests-biodiversity #terrestrial #protected #areas #total #land #area

Data Source

This data comes from World Bank World Development Indicators (2025).

View Original Source