15.4.2a Mountain Green Cover Index: Nival; Land Cover: Permanent snow and glaciers — 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 Index: Nival; Land Cover: Permanent snow and glaciers — Value is currently reported for 28 countries. The highest value is 99.75 % in Mongolia; the lowest is 0.83 % in Japan.
The median across all reporting countries is 22.25 %, and the mean is 27.57 %.
The gap between the highest and lowest reporting country is a factor of about 120.
Over the past decade 6 countries rose and 20 fell. The largest increase was in Azerbaijan (up 200.0%), and the largest decrease in Colombia (down 17.9%).
15.4.2a Mountain Green Cover Index: Nival; Land Cover: Permanent snow: full country ranking
| # | Country | Latest | Year | 10-year change | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mongolia | 99.75 % | 2021 | up 0.7% | flat |
| 2 | Bhutan | 79.82 % | 2021 | down 1.4% | flat |
| 3 | Chile | 56.51 % | 2021 | down 2.3% | flat |
| 4 | India | 52.76 % | 2021 | down 10.2% | falling |
| 5 | China, mainland | 42.88 % | 2021 | down 2.7% | falling |
| 6 | Kazakhstan | 42.46 % | 2021 | up 1.7% | flat |
| 7 | Nepal | 41.57 % | 2021 | down 6.3% | falling |
| 8 | Pakistan | 40.43 % | 2021 | down 5.0% | falling |
| 9 | New Zealand | 37.91 % | 2021 | down 3.1% | falling |
| 9 | Australia and New Zealand | 37.91 % | 2021 | down 3.1% | falling |
| 11 | Kyrgyzstan | 36.14 % | 2021 | down 2.8% | falling |
| 12 | Georgia | 30.64 % | 2021 | down 12.2% | falling |
| 13 | Tajikistan | 30.31 % | 2021 | down 5.4% | falling |
| 14 | Iceland | 26.82 % | 2021 | down 3.7% | falling |
| 15 | Peru | 17.67 % | 2021 | down 5.8% | falling |
| 16 | Ecuador | 16.49 % | 2021 | down 1.4% | flat |
| 17 | Switzerland | 14.27 % | 2021 | down 9.0% | falling |
| 18 | Sweden | 10.5 % | 2021 | down 0.4% | flat |
| 19 | Afghanistan | 9.54 % | 2021 | down 6.4% | falling |
| 20 | Italy | 8.86 % | 2021 | down 1.3% | falling |
| 21 | France | 8.64 % | 2021 | unchanged | falling |
| 22 | Colombia | 8.6 % | 2021 | down 17.9% | falling |
| 23 | Austria | 8.29 % | 2021 | down 11.6% | falling |
| 24 | Uzbekistan | 8.23 % | 2021 | up 3.3% | rising |
| 25 | Russian Federation | 1.73 % | 2021 | up 8.8% | falling |
| 26 | Azerbaijan | 1.62 % | 2021 | up 200.0% | rising |
| 27 | Spain | 0.84 % | 2021 | unchanged | falling |
| 28 | Japan | 0.83 % | 2021 | up 159.4% | rising |
Regions and income groups
Aggregates are excluded from the country ranking above so that a region can never outrank a country.
- United States of America 53.01 %
- Bolivia (Plurinational State of) 39.23 %
- Eastern Asia and South-eastern Asia 42.87 %
- Eastern Asia 42.87 %
- Least Developed Countries (LDCs) 16.44 %
- United Republic of Tanzania 2.01 %
- Northern America 39.35 %
- Oceania 37.91 %
- Central Asia 31.13 %
- Western Asia 30.2 %
- Western Asia and Northern Africa 30.2 %
- Latin America and the Caribbean 29.65 %
- Central Asia and Southern Asia 27.43 %
- World 25.79 %
- Land Locked Developing Countries (LLDCs) 24.69 %
- Southern Asia 23.97 %
- Northern America and Europe 23.16 %
- Europe 6.88 %
- Sub-Saharan Africa 2.01 %
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.