15.4.2a Mountain green cover area: Nival; Land Cover: Sparsely natural vegetated areas — Value by country
As the custodian agency of 22 SDG indicators, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is responsible for curating and refining the methodologies of these indicators, collecting data from national sources, ensuring their quality and compatibility with applicable standards and...
What the numbers show
15.4.2a Mountain green cover area: Nival; Land Cover: Sparsely natural vegetated areas — Value is currently reported for 28 countries. The highest value is 3,518 km2 in Iceland; the lowest is 0 km2 in Finland.
The median across all reporting countries is 194.65 km2, and the mean is 651.81 km2.
Over the past decade 8 countries rose and 15 fell. The largest increase was in Ecuador (up 64.3%), and the largest decrease in Finland (down 100.0%).
15.4.2a Mountain green cover area: Nival; Land Cover: Sparsely: full country ranking
| # | Country | Latest | Year | 10-year change | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Iceland | 3,518 km2 | 2021 | up 0.8% | flat |
| 2 | China, mainland | 3,070 km2 | 2021 | down 0.1% | flat |
| 3 | Afghanistan | 2,809 km2 | 2021 | down 0.2% | flat |
| 4 | Italy | 1,309 km2 | 2021 | up 22.5% | rising |
| 5 | Tajikistan | 1,276 km2 | 2021 | down 0.9% | flat |
| 6 | Switzerland | 1,208 km2 | 2021 | up 6.6% | rising |
| 7 | Austria | 889.2 km2 | 2021 | down 0.6% | flat |
| 8 | Russian Federation | 780.1 km2 | 2021 | down 0.2% | flat |
| 9 | Kyrgyzstan | 595.8 km2 | 2021 | down 0.7% | flat |
| 10 | Sweden | 593.9 km2 | 2021 | up 0.0% | flat |
| 11 | Nepal | 514.9 km2 | 2021 | down 0.4% | flat |
| 12 | France | 486 km2 | 2021 | up 0.1% | flat |
| 13 | Chile | 435.7 km2 | 2021 | down 0.4% | flat |
| 14 | India | 217.9 km2 | 2021 | down 0.2% | flat |
| 15 | Peru | 171.4 km2 | 2021 | up 0.4% | flat |
| 16 | Pakistan | 116.1 km2 | 2021 | down 0.9% | flat |
| 17 | Uzbekistan | 107.8 km2 | 2021 | up 0.7% | flat |
| 18 | Kazakhstan | 104.4 km2 | 2021 | down 0.5% | flat |
| 19 | Spain | 19.8 km2 | 2021 | down 8.8% | falling |
| 20 | Slovakia | 7.7 km2 | 2021 | unchanged | flat |
| 21 | Australia and New Zealand | 7.4 km2 | 2021 | down 5.1% | falling |
| 21 | New Zealand | 7.4 km2 | 2021 | down 5.1% | falling |
| 23 | Ecuador | 2.3 km2 | 2021 | up 64.3% | rising |
| 24 | Georgia | 1.9 km2 | 2021 | unchanged | rising |
| 25 | Bhutan | 1.4 km2 | 2021 | unchanged | flat |
| 26 | Azerbaijan | 0.6 km2 | 2021 | unchanged | flat |
| 27 | Colombia | 0.2 km2 | 2021 | unchanged | rising |
| 28 | Finland | 0 km2 | 2021 | down 100.0% | volatile |
Regions and income groups
Aggregates are excluded from the country ranking above so that a region can never outrank a country.
- World 31,635 km2
- Least Developed Countries (LDCs) 3,324 km2
- Northern America and Europe 20,684 km2
- Bolivia (Plurinational State of) 8.4 km2
- Europe 18,506 km2
- United Republic of Tanzania 0.3 km2
- Central Asia and Southern Asia 5,743 km2
- Land Locked Developing Countries (LLDCs) 5,418 km2
- Southern Asia 3,659 km2
- Eastern Asia 3,070 km2
- Eastern Asia and South-eastern Asia 3,070 km2
- Northern America 2,178 km2
- Latin America and the Caribbean 2,128 km2
- Central Asia 2,084 km2
- United States of America 498.5 km2
- Oceania 7.4 km2
- Western Asia and Northern Africa 2.5 km2
- Western Asia 2.5 km2
- Sub-Saharan Africa 0.3 km2
About this data
As the custodian agency of 22 SDG indicators, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is responsible for curating and refining the methodologies of these indicators, collecting data from national sources, ensuring their quality and compatibility with applicable standards and classifications, and disseminating data at global level. This FAOSTAT domain complements the global SDG database administered by the United Nations Statistical Division (UNSD), as well as FAO’s SDG indicators portal, by providing access to the available data for all SDG Indicators under FAO custodianship. While this metadata page provides summary information on all SDG indicators data disseminated through FAOSTAT, indicator-specific metadata can be accessed from the link on the right hand navigation column. This additional metadata file provides details on the methodology used to compile each indicators, their data sources and the contact information of the relevant FAO focal point. It includes the links to the official SDG Indicator metadata documents accessible from the UNSD global SDG database.SDG Indicators under FAO custodianship, consisting of 22 indicators and 66 series that fall under six goals: • Goal 2: End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture.• Goal 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.• Goal 6: Clean water and sanitation: Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.• Goal 12: Responsible consumption and production.• Goal 14: Life below water: Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources.• Goal 15: Life on land: Sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, halt and reverse land degradation, halt biodiversity loss.