Americas vs China (People’s Republic of): Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — Area

Americas
26,302 1000 ha
in 2024
China (People’s Republic of)
16,225 1000 ha
in 2024
Americas rank
2nd
China (People’s Republic of) rank
1st

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

  • Americas
  • China (People’s Republic of)
010.0k20.0k30.0k200120122024

How they compare

Americas currently reports 26,302 1000 ha against 16,225 1000 ha in China (People’s Republic of), a difference of 10,077 1000 ha.

That makes Americas's figure about 1.6 times China (People’s Republic of)'s.

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

Americas ranks 2nd and China (People’s Republic of) ranks 1st of 7 groups.

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

Head to head by decade

Decade Americas China (People’s Republic of) Difference Ahead
2000s 25,676 1000 ha 14,020 1000 ha 11,656 1000 ha Americas
2010s 26,004 1000 ha 15,241 1000 ha 10,764 1000 ha Americas
2020s 26,239 1000 ha 16,134 1000 ha 10,105 1000 ha Americas

Averages of every year both report within each decade.

Frequently asked questions

Which has higher artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area, Americas or China (People’s Republic of)?
Americas, at 26,302 1000 ha against 16,225 1000 ha in China (People’s Republic of) as of 2024.
What is the difference in artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area between Americas and China (People’s Republic of)?
10,077 1000 ha, with Americas ahead.
How many years of comparable data are there for Americas and China (People’s Republic of)?
24 years are reported by both, from 2001 to 2024.
How do Americas and China (People’s Republic of) rank globally for artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area?
Americas ranks 2nd and China (People’s Republic of) ranks 1st of 7 groups.
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 MODIS. Statizoid refreshes it automatically from the source and publishes the full history for both places.

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Americas vs China (People’s Republic of): Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — Area. Statizoid, drawing on Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Retrieved 19 August 2026, from https://environment.statizoid.com/compare/artificial-surfaces-including-urban-and-associated-areas-area-from-modis/americas/china/

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About this data

Indicator
Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — Area from MODIS
Unit
1000 ha
Source
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Licence
CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO (FAO)
Coverage
269 places, 6,390 data points, 2001–2024
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.