What is the difference in tree cover loss between Democratic Republic of Congo and United States?

218,930 hectares, with United States ahead.

How many years of comparable data are there for Democratic Republic of Congo and United States?

24 years are reported by both, from 2001 to 2024.

Where does this data come from?

Global Forest Watch (2025) – with major processing by Our World in Data, published as Tree cover loss. Statizoid refreshes it automatically from the source and publishes the full history for both places.

Democratic Republic of Congo vs United States: Tree cover loss

Democratic Republic of Congo

1.38 million hectares

in 2024

United States

1.59 million hectares

in 2024

Democratic Republic of Congo rank

6th

United States rank

5th

Tree cover loss over time

Democratic Republic of Congo
United States

How they compare

United States currently reports 1.59 million hectares against 1.38 million hectares in Democratic Republic of Congo, a difference of 218,930 hectares.

That makes United States's figure about 1.2 times Democratic Republic of Congo's.

Across all 24 years both countries report, United States has been ahead every year.

Democratic Republic of Congo ranks 6th and United States ranks 5th of 197 countries.

United States has averaged higher in every one of the 3 decades both report.

Head to head by decade

Decade	Democratic Republic of Congo	United States	Difference	Ahead
2000s	450,847 hectares	2.21 million hectares	1.76 million hectares	United States
2010s	1.05 million hectares	2.03 million hectares	979,839 hectares	United States
2020s	1.29 million hectares	1.84 million hectares	541,706 hectares	United States

Averages of every year both report within each decade.

Frequently asked questions

Which has higher tree cover loss, Democratic Republic of Congo or United States?: United States, at 1.59 million hectares against 1.38 million hectares in Democratic Republic of Congo as of 2024.
What is the difference in tree cover loss between Democratic Republic of Congo and United States?: 218,930 hectares, with United States ahead.
How many years of comparable data are there for Democratic Republic of Congo and United States?: 24 years are reported by both, from 2001 to 2024.
How do Democratic Republic of Congo and United States rank globally for tree cover loss?: Democratic Republic of Congo ranks 6th and United States ranks 5th of 197 countries.
Where does this data come from?: Global Forest Watch (2025) – with major processing by Our World in Data, published as Tree cover loss. Statizoid refreshes it automatically from the source and publishes the full history for both places.

Individual pages

Share, cite or embed this page

Cite this page

Democratic Republic of Congo vs United States: Tree cover loss. Statizoid, drawing on Global Forest Watch (2025) – with major processing by Our World in Data. Retrieved 23 September 2026, from https://reference.statizoid.com/compare/tree-cover-loss/congo-dem-rep/united-states/

Embed or link this data

Paste this into a page to link back to these figures. The data itself is free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 (Our World in Data); please keep the attribution.

<a href="https://reference.statizoid.com/compare/tree-cover-loss/congo-dem-rep/united-states/">Democratic Republic of Congo vs United States: Tree cover loss</a> — Statizoid

About this data

Indicator: Tree cover loss
Unit: hectares
Source: Global Forest Watch (2025) – with major processing by Our World in Data
Licence: CC BY 4.0 (Our World in Data)
Coverage: 197 places, 4,728 data points, 2001–2024
Last refreshed: 18 September 2026

Tree cover loss driven by all causes.