China vs Europe: Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — Area

China
12,058 1000 ha
in 2022
Europe
15,660 1000 ha
in 2022
China rank
1st
Europe rank
3rd

Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — Area over time

  • China
  • Europe
5.0k10.0k15.0k199220072022

How they compare

Europe currently reports 15,660 1000 ha against 12,058 1000 ha in China, a difference of 3,602 1000 ha.

That makes Europe's figure about 1.3 times China's.

Across all 31 years both countries report, Europe has been ahead every year.

China ranks 1st and Europe ranks 3rd of 224 countries.

Europe has averaged higher in every one of the 4 decades both report.

Head to head by decade

Decade China Europe Difference Ahead
1990s 2,926 1000 ha 8,258 1000 ha 5,332 1000 ha Europe
2000s 5,094 1000 ha 12,511 1000 ha 7,417 1000 ha Europe
2010s 9,068 1000 ha 14,680 1000 ha 5,612 1000 ha Europe
2020s 11,553 1000 ha 15,413 1000 ha 3,860 1000 ha Europe

Averages of every year both report within each decade.

Frequently asked questions

Which has higher artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area, China or Europe?
Europe, at 15,660 1000 ha against 12,058 1000 ha in China as of 2022.
What is the difference in artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area between China and Europe?
3,602 1000 ha, with Europe ahead.
How many years of comparable data are there for China and Europe?
31 years are reported by both, from 1992 to 2022.
How do China and Europe rank globally for artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area?
China ranks 1st and Europe ranks 3rd of 224 countries.
Where does this data come from?
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, published as Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — Area from CCI_LC. Statizoid refreshes it automatically from the source and publishes the full history for both places.

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China vs Europe: Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — Area. Statizoid, drawing on Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Retrieved 28 August 2026, from https://environment.statizoid.com/compare/artificial-surfaces-including-urban-and-associated-areas-area-from-cci-lc/china/europe/

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About this data

Indicator
Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — Area from CCI_LC
Unit
1000 ha
Source
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Licence
CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO (FAO)
Coverage
270 places, 8,231 data points, 1992–2022
Last refreshed

The FAOSTAT domain on Land Cover data under the Agri-Environmental Indicators section contains land cover information organized by the land cover classes of the international standard system for Environmental and Economic Accounting Central Framework (SEEA CF). The land cover information is compiled from publicly available Global Land Cover (GLC) maps: a) MODIS land cover types based on the Land Cover Classification System, LCCS; b) The European Spatial Agency (ESA) Climate Change Initiative (CCI) annual land cover maps produced by the Université catholique de Louvain (UCL)-Geomatics and now under the European Copernicus Program; c) The annual land cover maps which were produced under the European Copernicus Global Land Service (CGLS) (CGLS land cover, containing discrete land cover categorization), with spatial resolution 100m; and d) the WorldCover maps of the European Space Agency, produced at 10m resolution.