Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — Area in China
China: Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — Area was 12,058 1000 ha in 2022. ▲ Rising
Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — Area in China, 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 is 12,058 1000 ha, measured in 2022. That is the highest value across all 31 years on record.
That represents a change of up 4.6% on the previous year and up 49.8% over ten years.
Over the whole period, artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area in China peaked at 12,058 1000 ha in 2022 and was at its lowest, 2,630 1000 ha, in 1992.
That places China 1st out of 224 countries with data for 2022, putting it 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, year by year
| Year | 1000 ha | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 1992 | 2,630 1000 ha | — |
| 1993 | 2,717 1000 ha | +3.3% |
| 1994 | 2,800 1000 ha | +3.1% |
| 1995 | 2,884 1000 ha | +3.0% |
| 1996 | 2,969 1000 ha | +3.0% |
| 1997 | 3,052 1000 ha | +2.8% |
| 1998 | 3,137 1000 ha | +2.8% |
| 1999 | 3,219 1000 ha | +2.6% |
| 2000 | 3,307 1000 ha | +2.8% |
| 2001 | 3,674 1000 ha | +11.1% |
| 2002 | 4,054 1000 ha | +10.3% |
| 2003 | 4,459 1000 ha | +10.0% |
| 2004 | 4,913 1000 ha | +10.2% |
| 2005 | 5,299 1000 ha | +7.8% |
| 2006 | 5,698 1000 ha | +7.5% |
| 2007 | 6,104 1000 ha | +7.1% |
| 2008 | 6,526 1000 ha | +6.9% |
| 2009 | 6,906 1000 ha | +5.8% |
| 2010 | 7,293 1000 ha | +5.6% |
| 2011 | 7,659 1000 ha | +5.0% |
| 2012 | 8,051 1000 ha | +5.1% |
| 2013 | 8,597 1000 ha | +6.8% |
| 2014 | 9,072 1000 ha | +5.5% |
| 2015 | 9,346 1000 ha | +3.0% |
| 2016 | 9,396 1000 ha | +0.5% |
| 2017 | 10,007 1000 ha | +6.5% |
| 2018 | 10,453 1000 ha | +4.5% |
| 2019 | 10,810 1000 ha | +3.4% |
| 2020 | 11,078 1000 ha | +2.5% |
| 2021 | 11,525 1000 ha | +4.0% |
| 2022 | 12,058 1000 ha | +4.6% |
China compared with similar countries
- China's 12,058 1000 ha is above the median for upper middle income countries, which is 62.64 1000 ha, 192.5× the median. (52 countries reporting)
- China's 12,058 1000 ha is above the median for East Asia & Pacific, which is 4.04 1000 ha, 2984.6× the median. (27 countries reporting)
Averages by decade
| Decade | Average | Lowest | Highest | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1990s | 2,926 1000 ha | 2,630 1000 ha | 3,219 1000 ha | 8 |
| 2000s | 5,094 1000 ha | 3,307 1000 ha | 6,906 1000 ha | 10 |
| 2010s | 9,068 1000 ha | 7,293 1000 ha | 10,810 1000 ha | 10 |
| 2020s | 11,553 1000 ha | 11,078 1000 ha | 12,058 1000 ha | 3 |
Countries ranked near China
- 2 China, mainland 11,872 1000 ha compare
- 2 Türkiye 722.44 1000 ha compare
- 3 Iran (Islamic Republic of) 590.66 1000 ha compare
- 3 Russian Federation 2,839 1000 ha compare
- 4 India 2,567 1000 ha compare
More environment data for China
- Standard Deviation, annual growth rate 0 % change on previous year (2025)
- Standard Deviation 0.279 °C (2025)
- Temperature change 1.92 °C (2025)
- Wood-based panels — Production, annual growth rate 5.29 % change on previous year (2024)
- Total greenhouse gas emissions excluding LULUCF (Mt CO2e), annual 0.8065 % change on previous year (2024)
- Total greenhouse gas emissions excluding LULUCF (Mt CO2e), per unit 0 Mt CO2e per US$ of GDP (2024)
- Total greenhouse gas emissions excluding LULUCF (Mt CO2e), per capita 0 Mt CO2e per person (2024)
- Methane (CH4) emissions from Agriculture (Mt CO2e), annual growth rate -0.2517 % change on previous year (2024)
- Methane (CH4) emissions from Agriculture (Mt CO2e), per unit of GDP 0 Mt CO2e per US$ of GDP (2024)
- Methane (CH4) emissions from Agriculture (Mt CO2e), per capita 0 Mt CO2e per person (2024)
Frequently asked questions
- What is artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area in China?
- Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area in China was 12,058 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?
- The highest recorded value was 12,058 1000 ha in 2022.
- What is the lowest artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area recorded in China?
- The lowest recorded value was 2,630 1000 ha in 1992.
- How does China rank for artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area?
- China ranks 1st out of 224 countries with data for 2022.
- Is artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area rising or falling in China?
- Over the last ten years it is up 49.8%. The long-run trend across the full record is rising.
- Where does this China 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.