Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — Area in Northern Europe
Northern Europe: Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — Area was 1,870 1000 ha in 2022. ▲ Rising
Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — Area in Northern Europe, 1992–2022
Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Measured in 1000 ha.
Analysis
Northern Europe recorded 1,870 1000 ha for artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area in 2022. That is the highest value across all 31 years on record.
That represents a change of up 2.6% on the previous year and up 6.4% over ten years.
Over the whole period, artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area in Northern Europe peaked at 1,870 1000 ha in 2022 and was at its lowest, 1,087 1000 ha, in 1992.
Northern Europe ranks 16th of 26 groups 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 Northern Europe, year by year
| Year | 1000 ha | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 1992 | 1,087 1000 ha | — |
| 1993 | 1,120 1000 ha | +3.0% |
| 1994 | 1,153 1000 ha | +2.9% |
| 1995 | 1,185 1000 ha | +2.8% |
| 1996 | 1,216 1000 ha | +2.6% |
| 1997 | 1,242 1000 ha | +2.2% |
| 1998 | 1,270 1000 ha | +2.2% |
| 1999 | 1,297 1000 ha | +2.1% |
| 2000 | 1,324 1000 ha | +2.1% |
| 2001 | 1,428 1000 ha | +7.8% |
| 2002 | 1,523 1000 ha | +6.6% |
| 2003 | 1,592 1000 ha | +4.6% |
| 2004 | 1,659 1000 ha | +4.2% |
| 2005 | 1,687 1000 ha | +1.7% |
| 2006 | 1,702 1000 ha | +0.9% |
| 2007 | 1,716 1000 ha | +0.8% |
| 2008 | 1,733 1000 ha | +1.0% |
| 2009 | 1,738 1000 ha | +0.3% |
| 2010 | 1,743 1000 ha | +0.3% |
| 2011 | 1,747 1000 ha | +0.2% |
| 2012 | 1,758 1000 ha | +0.6% |
| 2013 | 1,761 1000 ha | +0.2% |
| 2014 | 1,766 1000 ha | +0.3% |
| 2015 | 1,770 1000 ha | +0.2% |
| 2016 | 1,773 1000 ha | +0.2% |
| 2017 | 1,779 1000 ha | +0.4% |
| 2018 | 1,779 1000 ha | -0.0% |
| 2019 | 1,789 1000 ha | +0.6% |
| 2020 | 1,789 1000 ha | +0.0% |
| 2021 | 1,822 1000 ha | +1.9% |
| 2022 | 1,870 1000 ha | +2.6% |
Averages by decade
| Decade | Average | Lowest | Highest | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1990s | 1,196 1000 ha | 1,087 1000 ha | 1,297 1000 ha | 8 |
| 2000s | 1,610 1000 ha | 1,324 1000 ha | 1,738 1000 ha | 10 |
| 2010s | 1,766 1000 ha | 1,743 1000 ha | 1,789 1000 ha | 10 |
| 2020s | 1,827 1000 ha | 1,789 1000 ha | 1,870 1000 ha | 3 |
Countries ranked near Northern Europe
More environment data for Northern Europe
- Historical exposure to drought — Land soil moisture anomaly 1.53 Percentage change (2025)
- Standard Deviation, annual growth rate 0 % change on previous year (2025)
- Historical exposure to drought — Cropland soil moisture anomaly -1.04 Percentage change (2025)
- Standard Deviation 0.685 °C (2025)
- Temperature change 2.48 °C (2025)
- Roundwood — Production 200.58 million m3 (2024)
- Roundwood, non-coniferous — Production 40.72 million m3 (2024)
- Roundwood, coniferous — Production 159.86 million m3 (2024)
- Roundwood — Export value 1.86 million 1000 USD (2024)
- Roundwood — Export quantity 18.30 million m3 (2024)
Frequently asked questions
- What is artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area in Northern Europe?
- Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area in Northern Europe was 1,870 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 Northern Europe?
- The highest recorded value was 1,870 1000 ha in 2022.
- What is the lowest artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area recorded in Northern Europe?
- The lowest recorded value was 1,087 1000 ha in 1992.
- How does Northern Europe rank for artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area?
- Northern Europe ranks 16th out of 26 groups with data for 2022.
- Is artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area rising or falling in Northern Europe?
- Over the last ten years it is up 6.4%. The long-run trend across the full record is rising.
- Where does this Northern Europe 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.