Share of land defined as natural habitat by country

Natural ecosystems include forest, grassland, savanna, and shrublands, and other classes such as peatlands and marshes. It is total land minus land that is used by humans for agriculture – either croplands or pasture – or for infrastructure and urban environments.

Countries reporting

166

Highest

100

Bahamas

Lowest

0.8533

Libya

Median

58.19

Years covered

231

1780–2010

Data points

4,032

What the numbers show

Share of land defined as natural habitat is currently reported for 166 countries. The highest value is 100 in Bahamas; the lowest is 0.8533 in Libya.

The median across all reporting countries is 58.19, and the mean is 55.48.

The gap between the highest and lowest reporting country is a factor of about 117.

Over the past decade 77 countries rose and 83 fell. The largest increase was in United Arab Emirates (up 216.4%), and the largest decrease in Gambia (down 19.2%).

Share of land defined as natural habitat: full country ranking

#	Country	Latest	Year	10-year change	Trend
1	Bahamas	100	2010	unchanged	flat
1	Mauritius	100	2010	unchanged	flat
1	Vanuatu	100	2010	unchanged	flat
1	Falkland Islands	100	2010	unchanged	flat
5	Solomon Islands	99.91	2010	unchanged	flat
6	Puerto Rico	98.59	2010	unchanged	flat
7	New Caledonia	98.52	2010	up 3.7%	flat
8	Fiji	98.4	2010	up 0.0%	flat
9	Cyprus	98.23	2010	up 0.8%	flat
10	Jamaica	97.11	2010	up 0.0%	flat
11	Suriname	96.73	2010	down 0.1%	flat
12	Papua New Guinea	94.68	2010	down 0.1%	flat
13	Laos	93.06	2010	down 0.2%	flat
14	Equatorial Guinea	92.69	2010	up 0.3%	falling
15	Guyana	92.37	2010	up 0.2%	falling
16	Central African Republic	91.78	2010	down 0.3%	falling
17	Democratic Republic of Congo	88.57	2010	down 0.6%	falling
18	Slovenia	85.35	2010	up 1.2%	falling
19	Gabon	84.47	2010	up 0.4%	falling
20	Japan	83.73	2010	up 3.1%	falling
21	South Korea	83.66	2010	up 1.1%	falling
22	Bhutan	82.3	2010	down 0.3%	falling
23	Myanmar	81.11	2010	down 0.6%	falling
24	Venezuela	79.37	2010	down 0.0%	falling
25	Cameroon	79.05	2010	down 0.5%	falling
26	Brunei	78.75	2010	down 2.0%	falling
27	Belize	78.66	2010	down 1.6%	flat
28	North Korea	78.56	2010	down 1.7%	falling
29	Canada	77.35	2010	up 0.2%	falling
30	Slovakia	77.21	2010	up 9.0%	falling
31	Zambia	75.9	2010	down 2.1%	falling
32	Indonesia	75.71	2010	down 2.7%	falling
33	Congo	75.11	2010	up 3.3%	falling
34	Vietnam	74.93	2010	down 1.7%	falling
35	Liberia	74.36	2010	down 0.0%	falling
36	Nicaragua	74.11	2010	down 1.5%	falling
37	Malaysia	73.95	2010	down 3.3%	falling
38	Philippines	73.94	2010	down 0.6%	falling
39	Benin	73.52	2010	down 3.7%	falling
40	Tanzania	73.21	2010	down 1.4%	falling
41	Brazil	71.74	2010	down 0.5%	falling
42	Palestine	71.73	2010	up 1.7%	falling
43	Peru	71.68	2010	down 0.3%	falling
44	Austria	71.09	2010	up 2.6%	rising
45	Sri Lanka	70.99	2010	up 2.7%	falling
46	Honduras	69.78	2010	up 0.5%	falling
47	Panama	69.78	2010	down 2.8%	falling
48	Poland	69.27	2010	up 7.7%	falling
49	Lithuania	68.76	2010	up 11.5%	falling
50	Ecuador	68.76	2010	up 3.5%	falling
51	Zimbabwe	68.4	2010	down 2.0%	falling
52	Colombia	67.89	2010	up 2.7%	falling
53	Montenegro	67.79	2010	down 1.9%	falling
54	Latvia	67.64	2010	down 1.9%	falling
55	Ethiopia	67.61	2010	down 3.2%	falling
56	Nepal	67.36	2010	up 0.4%	falling
57	Guatemala	67.09	2010	down 0.3%	falling
58	Botswana	66.24	2010	up 0.1%	falling
59	Sweden	65.92	2010	down 0.4%	falling
60	Cambodia	65.66	2010	down 7.1%	falling
61	Costa Rica	65.65	2010	down 0.2%	falling
62	Germany	65.27	2010	up 0.9%	rising
63	Bolivia	64.89	2010	down 0.9%	falling
64	Namibia	64.25	2010	up 5.4%	falling
66	Bulgaria	63.34	2010	up 2.7%	falling
67	Lebanon	63.18	2010	down 0.9%	falling
68	Portugal	62.88	2010	up 1.8%	falling
69	Albania	62.8	2010	up 3.3%	falling
70	Thailand	62.77	2010	up 1.4%	falling
71	Sierra Leone	62.4	2010	down 1.4%	falling
72	Russia	62.1	2010	up 0.9%	falling
73	France	62.02	2010	up 0.1%	rising
74	Denmark	61.44	2010	up 1.2%	falling
75	Bosnia and Herzegovina	61.25	2010	up 3.0%	falling
76	Croatia	61.22	2010	up 31.5%	falling
77	East Timor	60.8	2010	down 3.2%	falling
78	Burkina Faso	60.78	2010	down 5.4%	falling
79	Trinidad and Tobago	60.66	2010	down 0.1%	falling
80	Italy	60.51	2010	up 4.5%	falling
81	Guinea	60.48	2010	down 1.0%	falling
82	Greece	59.63	2010	up 2.9%	falling
83	Angola	58.65	2010	down 0.1%	falling
84	Senegal	58.35	2010	down 3.3%	falling
85	New Zealand	58.03	2010	down 0.6%	falling
86	Belarus	57.99	2010	up 5.1%	falling
87	Israel	56.94	2010	up 0.7%	falling
88	Switzerland	56.69	2010	down 0.1%	falling
89	Cuba	56.39	2010	down 2.1%	falling
90	Dominican Republic	55.98	2010	up 2.5%	falling
91	Spain	55.95	2010	up 2.1%	flat
92	Taiwan	53.91	2010	down 1.0%	falling
93	North Macedonia	53.34	2010	up 1.8%	falling
94	Kenya	52.61	2010	down 1.1%	falling
95	Malawi	52.46	2010	down 8.2%	falling
96	Romania	52.45	2010	up 8.6%	falling
97	Australia	52.13	2010	up 11.9%	falling
98	Guinea-Bissau	52.12	2010	down 1.7%	falling
99	Netherlands	51.98	2010	down 0.2%	falling
100	Mexico	51.93	2010	down 0.2%	falling
102	Czechia	51.8	2010	up 2.0%	falling
103	Argentina	51.18	2010	up 0.1%	falling
104	Cote d'Ivoire	51.09	2010	down 3.7%	falling
105	Mozambique	50.77	2010	up 0.5%	falling
106	Belgium	50.71	2010	down 4.7%	falling
107	Armenia	49.78	2010	up 2.4%	falling
108	Haiti	49.51	2010	up 0.2%	falling
109	Paraguay	48.81	2010	down 4.7%	falling
110	Togo	48.46	2010	down 5.9%	falling
111	United States	48.26	2010	up 0.0%	falling
112	Ghana	48.23	2010	down 3.3%	falling
113	Georgia	47.88	2010	up 0.7%	falling
114	Uganda	47.81	2010	down 4.9%	falling
115	United Kingdom	47.4	2010	up 7.4%	falling
116	Jordan	47.22	2010	up 1.3%	falling
117	Turkey	46.49	2010	up 2.8%	falling
118	Hungary	42.99	2010	up 2.4%	falling
119	Qatar	42.48	2010	down 0.1%	rising
120	Chile	42.39	2010	up 1.1%	falling
121	Serbia	42.16	2010	up 4.9%	falling
122	Morocco	41.24	2010	up 40.1%	falling
123	India	40.38	2010	down 0.7%	falling
124	Pakistan	40.17	2010	down 0.8%	falling
125	Azerbaijan	39.39	2010	up 0.3%	falling
126	Eritrea	38.33	2010	down 1.7%	falling
127	Iran	38.3	2010	up 25.8%	falling
128	Tajikistan	36.08	2010	up 3.6%	falling
129	Madagascar	35.78	2010	up 0.8%	falling
130	Lesotho	34.17	2010	down 2.7%	falling
131	South Africa	33.55	2010	up 4.5%	falling
132	Iraq	31.48	2010	down 5.1%	falling
133	Kuwait	29.96	2010	up 22.4%	falling
134	Mongolia	29.77	2010	up 9.9%	falling
135	Afghanistan	29.61	2010	down 0.2%	falling
136	Somalia	29.36	2010	down 1.2%	falling
137	Niger	28.19	2010	up 35.1%	falling
138	El Salvador	27.86	2010	down 16.6%	falling
139	Ukraine	27.51	2010	up 3.4%	falling
140	South Sudan	26.37	2010	down 4.5%	falling
141	China	26.36	2010	down 2.3%	falling
142	Nigeria	26.07	2010	down 8.7%	falling
143	Rwanda	25.39	2010	down 5.6%	falling
144	Mali	25.22	2010	down 1.5%	falling
145	Bangladesh	24.98	2010	down 1.1%	falling
146	Moldova	24.49	2010	up 9.7%	volatile
147	Chad	23.87	2010	down 1.5%	falling
148	Burundi	23.18	2010	down 4.1%	falling
149	Uzbekistan	23.05	2010	down 0.4%	falling
150	Uruguay	22.96	2010	up 9.1%	volatile
151	Gambia	22.71	2010	down 19.2%	falling
152	United Arab Emirates	22.49	2010	up 216.4%	rising
153	Eswatini	22.14	2010	up 7.3%	falling
154	Kazakhstan	21.83	2010	up 4.3%	falling
155	Kyrgyzstan	21.62	2010	up 0.5%	falling
156	Yemen	20.42	2010	down 0.8%	falling
157	Syria	17.63	2010	down 9.1%	falling
158	Mauritania	15.79	2010	down 0.2%	volatile
159	Turkmenistan	15.6	2010	up 1.6%	falling
160	Tunisia	14.73	2010	up 10.9%	falling
161	Oman	13.28	2010	down 1.3%	flat
162	Egypt	11.98	2010	down 0.5%	volatile
163	Western Sahara	11.81	2010	up 0.1%	volatile
164	Algeria	9.37	2010	down 0.4%	falling
165	Djibouti	9.17	2010	up 9.9%	falling
166	Sudan	7.15	2010	down 10.9%	falling
167	Saudi Arabia	6.73	2010	up 0.1%	falling
168	Libya	0.8533	2010	down 9.9%	falling

About this data

Indicator: Share of land defined as natural habitat
Source: Taylor and Rising, and United Nations (2021) – processed by Our World in Data
Licence: CC BY 4.0 (Our World in Data)
Coverage: 168 places, 4,032 data points, 1780–2010
Last refreshed: 07 August 2026