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

China, mainland
15,855 1000 ha
in 2024
Europe
17,392 1000 ha
in 2024
China, mainland rank
2nd
Europe rank
4th

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

  • China, mainland
  • Europe
05.0k10.0k15.0k200120122024

How they compare

Europe currently reports 17,392 1000 ha against 15,855 1000 ha in China, mainland, a difference of 1,537 1000 ha.

That makes Europe's figure about 1.1 times China, mainland's.

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

China, mainland ranks 2nd and Europe ranks 4th of 223 countries.

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

Head to head by decade

Decade China, mainland Europe Difference Ahead
2000s 13,665 1000 ha 17,164 1000 ha 3,499 1000 ha Europe
2010s 14,874 1000 ha 17,277 1000 ha 2,402 1000 ha Europe
2020s 15,765 1000 ha 17,375 1000 ha 1,610 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, mainland or Europe?
Europe, at 17,392 1000 ha against 15,855 1000 ha in China, mainland as of 2024.
What is the difference in artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area between China, mainland and Europe?
1,537 1000 ha, with Europe ahead.
How many years of comparable data are there for China, mainland and Europe?
24 years are reported by both, from 2001 to 2024.
How do China, mainland and Europe rank globally for artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area?
China, mainland ranks 2nd and Europe ranks 4th of 223 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 MODIS. Statizoid refreshes it automatically from the source and publishes the full history for both places.

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China, mainland vs Europe: Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — Area. Statizoid, drawing on Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Retrieved 29 August 2026, from https://environment.statizoid.com/compare/artificial-surfaces-including-urban-and-associated-areas-area-from-modis/china-mainland/europe/

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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.