Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — Area in Southern Asia
Southern Asia: Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — Area was 3,872 1000 ha in 2022. ▲ Rising
Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — Area in Southern Asia, 1992–2022
Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Measured in 1000 ha.
Analysis
In 2022, artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area in Southern Asia stood at 3,872 1000 ha. That is the highest value across all 31 years on record.
Compared with earlier readings it is up 8.8% on the previous year and up 54.0% over ten years.
Over the whole period, artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area in Southern Asia peaked at 3,872 1000 ha in 2022 and was at its lowest, 926.22 1000 ha, in 1992.
That places Southern Asia 12th out of 26 groups with data for 2022, putting it 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 Southern Asia, year by year
| Year | 1000 ha | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 1992 | 926.22 1000 ha | — |
| 1993 | 947.64 1000 ha | +2.3% |
| 1994 | 969.08 1000 ha | +2.3% |
| 1995 | 989.07 1000 ha | +2.1% |
| 1996 | 1,010 1000 ha | +2.1% |
| 1997 | 1,031 1000 ha | +2.0% |
| 1998 | 1,053 1000 ha | +2.1% |
| 1999 | 1,074 1000 ha | +2.0% |
| 2000 | 1,098 1000 ha | +2.2% |
| 2001 | 1,260 1000 ha | +14.8% |
| 2002 | 1,398 1000 ha | +11.0% |
| 2003 | 1,539 1000 ha | +10.1% |
| 2004 | 1,676 1000 ha | +8.9% |
| 2005 | 1,791 1000 ha | +6.9% |
| 2006 | 1,901 1000 ha | +6.1% |
| 2007 | 2,016 1000 ha | +6.0% |
| 2008 | 2,108 1000 ha | +4.6% |
| 2009 | 2,201 1000 ha | +4.4% |
| 2010 | 2,290 1000 ha | +4.0% |
| 2011 | 2,381 1000 ha | +4.0% |
| 2012 | 2,515 1000 ha | +5.6% |
| 2013 | 2,706 1000 ha | +7.6% |
| 2014 | 2,902 1000 ha | +7.2% |
| 2015 | 3,014 1000 ha | +3.9% |
| 2016 | 3,024 1000 ha | +0.3% |
| 2017 | 3,147 1000 ha | +4.1% |
| 2018 | 3,215 1000 ha | +2.2% |
| 2019 | 3,341 1000 ha | +3.9% |
| 2020 | 3,385 1000 ha | +1.3% |
| 2021 | 3,559 1000 ha | +5.1% |
| 2022 | 3,872 1000 ha | +8.8% |
Averages by decade
| Decade | Average | Lowest | Highest | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1990s | 999.92 1000 ha | 926.22 1000 ha | 1,074 1000 ha | 8 |
| 2000s | 1,699 1000 ha | 1,098 1000 ha | 2,201 1000 ha | 10 |
| 2010s | 2,854 1000 ha | 2,290 1000 ha | 3,341 1000 ha | 10 |
| 2020s | 3,605 1000 ha | 3,385 1000 ha | 3,872 1000 ha | 3 |
Countries ranked near Southern Asia
More environment data for Southern Asia
- Standard Deviation, annual growth rate 0 % change on previous year (2025)
- Historical exposure to drought — Land soil moisture anomaly 0.4009 Percentage change (2025)
- Historical exposure to drought — Cropland soil moisture anomaly 6.69 Percentage change (2025)
- Standard Deviation 0.274 °C (2025)
- Temperature change 1.44 °C (2025)
- Total fibre furnish — Production 15.39 million t (2024)
- Recovered paper — Production 8.45 million t (2024)
- Cropland — Area 238,515 1000 ha (2024)
- Nutrient potash K2O (total) — Use per capita 1.52 kg/cap (2024)
- Nutrient potash K2O (total) — Use per value of agricultural production 4.25 g/Int$ (2024)
Frequently asked questions
- What is artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area in Southern Asia?
- Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area in Southern Asia was 3,872 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 Southern Asia?
- The highest recorded value was 3,872 1000 ha in 2022.
- What is the lowest artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area recorded in Southern Asia?
- The lowest recorded value was 926.22 1000 ha in 1992.
- How does Southern Asia rank for artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area?
- Southern Asia ranks 12th out of 26 groups with data for 2022.
- Is artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area rising or falling in Southern Asia?
- Over the last ten years it is up 54.0%. The long-run trend across the full record is rising.
- Where does this Southern Asia 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.