Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — Area in China, mainland
China, mainland: Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — Area was 11,872 1000 ha in 2022. ▲ Rising
Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — Area in China, mainland, 1992–2022
Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Measured in 1000 ha.
Analysis
The most recent figure for artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area in China, mainland is 11,872 1000 ha, measured in 2022. That is the highest value across all 31 years on record.
That represents a change of up 4.7% on the previous year and up 49.9% over ten years.
Over the whole period, artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area in China, mainland peaked at 11,872 1000 ha in 2022 and was at its lowest, 2,571 1000 ha, in 1992.
China, mainland ranks 2nd of 224 countries on this measure, in the top 10%.
The long-run direction has been consistently rising across the 31 years of available data.
Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — Area in China, mainland, year by year
| Year | 1000 ha | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 1992 | 2,571 1000 ha | — |
| 1993 | 2,656 1000 ha | +3.3% |
| 1994 | 2,738 1000 ha | +3.1% |
| 1995 | 2,821 1000 ha | +3.0% |
| 1996 | 2,905 1000 ha | +3.0% |
| 1997 | 2,987 1000 ha | +2.8% |
| 1998 | 3,070 1000 ha | +2.8% |
| 1999 | 3,151 1000 ha | +2.6% |
| 2000 | 3,239 1000 ha | +2.8% |
| 2001 | 3,599 1000 ha | +11.1% |
| 2002 | 3,973 1000 ha | +10.4% |
| 2003 | 4,373 1000 ha | +10.1% |
| 2004 | 4,822 1000 ha | +10.3% |
| 2005 | 5,203 1000 ha | +7.9% |
| 2006 | 5,597 1000 ha | +7.6% |
| 2007 | 5,998 1000 ha | +7.2% |
| 2008 | 6,415 1000 ha | +7.0% |
| 2009 | 6,790 1000 ha | +5.8% |
| 2010 | 7,172 1000 ha | +5.6% |
| 2011 | 7,533 1000 ha | +5.0% |
| 2012 | 7,919 1000 ha | +5.1% |
| 2013 | 8,454 1000 ha | +6.8% |
| 2014 | 8,920 1000 ha | +5.5% |
| 2015 | 9,187 1000 ha | +3.0% |
| 2016 | 9,234 1000 ha | +0.5% |
| 2017 | 9,841 1000 ha | +6.6% |
| 2018 | 10,282 1000 ha | +4.5% |
| 2019 | 10,635 1000 ha | +3.4% |
| 2020 | 10,896 1000 ha | +2.5% |
| 2021 | 11,342 1000 ha | +4.1% |
| 2022 | 11,872 1000 ha | +4.7% |
Averages by decade
| Decade | Average | Lowest | Highest | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1990s | 2,863 1000 ha | 2,571 1000 ha | 3,151 1000 ha | 8 |
| 2000s | 5,001 1000 ha | 3,239 1000 ha | 6,790 1000 ha | 10 |
| 2010s | 8,918 1000 ha | 7,172 1000 ha | 10,635 1000 ha | 10 |
| 2020s | 11,370 1000 ha | 10,896 1000 ha | 11,872 1000 ha | 3 |
Countries ranked near China, mainland
More environment data for China, mainland
- Standard Deviation, annual growth rate 0 % change on previous year (2025)
- Standard Deviation 0.279 °C (2025)
- Temperature change 1.92 °C (2025)
- Permanent crops — Area 20,142 1000 ha (2024)
- Agricultural land — Value of agricultural production (Int. $) per Area 2,591 USD_PPP/ha (2024)
- Arable land — Share in Agricultural land 27.68 % (2024)
- Arable land — Area 108,466 1000 ha (2024)
- Cropland — Area 128,608 1000 ha (2024)
- Cropland — Area per capita 0.09 ha/cap (2024)
- Cropland — Share in Land area 13.7 % (2024)
Frequently asked questions
- What is artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area in China, mainland?
- Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area in China, mainland was 11,872 1000 ha in 2022, according to Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
- What is the highest artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area recorded in China, mainland?
- The highest recorded value was 11,872 1000 ha in 2022.
- What is the lowest artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area recorded in China, mainland?
- The lowest recorded value was 2,571 1000 ha in 1992.
- How does China, mainland rank for artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area?
- China, mainland ranks 2nd out of 224 countries with data for 2022.
- Is artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area rising or falling in China, mainland?
- Over the last ten years it is up 49.9%. The long-run trend across the full record is rising.
- Where does this China, mainland data come from?
- The figures come from Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, published as part of Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — Area from CCI_LC. Statizoid updates them automatically from the source API.
Download this data
CSV · JSON — 31 observations, free to reuse under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO (FAO).
About this data
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.