Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — Area in Lesotho
Lesotho: Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — Area was 10.71 1000 ha in 2022. ▲ Rising
Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — Area in Lesotho, 1992–2022
Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Measured in 1000 ha.
Analysis
Lesotho recorded 10.71 1000 ha for artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area in 2022. That is the highest value across all 31 years on record.
The figure is up 3.2% on the previous year and up 127.4% over ten years.
Over the whole period, artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area in Lesotho peaked at 10.71 1000 ha in 2022 and was at its lowest, 2.75 1000 ha, in 1992.
Lesotho ranks 151st of 224 countries on this measure, in the middle of the range.
The long-run direction has been consistently rising across the 31 years of available data.
Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — Area in Lesotho, year by year
| Year | 1000 ha | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 1992 | 2.75 1000 ha | — |
| 1993 | 2.78 1000 ha | +1.1% |
| 1994 | 2.81 1000 ha | +1.1% |
| 1995 | 2.89 1000 ha | +2.8% |
| 1996 | 2.97 1000 ha | +2.8% |
| 1997 | 3.03 1000 ha | +2.0% |
| 1998 | 3.13 1000 ha | +3.3% |
| 1999 | 3.23 1000 ha | +3.2% |
| 2000 | 3.36 1000 ha | +4.0% |
| 2001 | 3.42 1000 ha | +1.8% |
| 2002 | 3.49 1000 ha | +2.0% |
| 2003 | 3.53 1000 ha | +1.1% |
| 2004 | 3.58 1000 ha | +1.4% |
| 2005 | 3.7 1000 ha | +3.4% |
| 2006 | 3.78 1000 ha | +2.2% |
| 2007 | 3.92 1000 ha | +3.7% |
| 2008 | 4.04 1000 ha | +3.1% |
| 2009 | 4.15 1000 ha | +2.7% |
| 2010 | 4.31 1000 ha | +3.9% |
| 2011 | 4.49 1000 ha | +4.2% |
| 2012 | 4.71 1000 ha | +4.9% |
| 2013 | 6.95 1000 ha | +47.6% |
| 2014 | 7.58 1000 ha | +9.1% |
| 2015 | 7.73 1000 ha | +2.0% |
| 2016 | 8.08 1000 ha | +4.5% |
| 2017 | 8.17 1000 ha | +1.1% |
| 2018 | 8.18 1000 ha | +0.1% |
| 2019 | 8.37 1000 ha | +2.3% |
| 2020 | 10 1000 ha | +19.5% |
| 2021 | 10.38 1000 ha | +3.8% |
| 2022 | 10.71 1000 ha | +3.2% |
Lesotho compared with similar countries
- Lesotho's 10.71 1000 ha is below the median for lower middle income countries, which is 48.46 1000 ha, 22% of the median. (41 countries reporting)
- Lesotho's 10.71 1000 ha is below the median for Sub-Saharan Africa, which is 38.9 1000 ha, 28% of the median. (44 countries reporting)
Biggest year-on-year movements
Years where Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — Area in Lesotho changed far more than this series normally does. A large move can be a real event or a change in how the figure was measured — the source note below says who published it.
| Year | Change | From | To |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | +47.6% | 4.71 1000 ha | 6.95 1000 ha |
Averages by decade
| Decade | Average | Lowest | Highest | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1990s | 2.95 1000 ha | 2.75 1000 ha | 3.23 1000 ha | 8 |
| 2000s | 3.7 1000 ha | 3.36 1000 ha | 4.15 1000 ha | 10 |
| 2010s | 6.86 1000 ha | 4.31 1000 ha | 8.37 1000 ha | 10 |
| 2020s | 10.36 1000 ha | 10 1000 ha | 10.71 1000 ha | 3 |
Countries ranked near Lesotho
More environment data for Lesotho
- Standard Deviation, annual growth rate 0 % change on previous year (2025)
- Standard Deviation 0.284 °C (2025)
- Temperature change 0.783 °C (2025)
- Total greenhouse gas emissions excluding LULUCF (Mt CO2e), annual -0.521 % 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 -2.27 % 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)
- Methane (CH4) emissions from Building (Energy) (Mt CO2e), annual -0.4197 % change on previous year (2024)
Frequently asked questions
- What is artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area in Lesotho?
- Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area in Lesotho was 10.71 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 Lesotho?
- The highest recorded value was 10.71 1000 ha in 2022.
- What is the lowest artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area recorded in Lesotho?
- The lowest recorded value was 2.75 1000 ha in 1992.
- How does Lesotho rank for artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area?
- Lesotho ranks 151st out of 224 countries with data for 2022.
- Is artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area rising or falling in Lesotho?
- Over the last ten years it is up 127.4%. The long-run trend across the full record is rising.
- Where does this Lesotho 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.