Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — Area in Spain
Spain: Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — Area was 632.48 1000 ha in 2022. ▲ Rising
Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — Area in Spain, 1992–2022
Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Measured in 1000 ha.
Analysis
Spain recorded 632.48 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 1.8% on the previous year and up 31.1% over ten years.
Over the whole period, artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area in Spain peaked at 632.48 1000 ha in 2022 and was at its lowest, 225.32 1000 ha, in 1992.
Spain ranks 20th 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 Spain, year by year
| Year | 1000 ha | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 1992 | 225.32 1000 ha | — |
| 1993 | 231.05 1000 ha | +2.5% |
| 1994 | 237.05 1000 ha | +2.6% |
| 1995 | 244.23 1000 ha | +3.0% |
| 1996 | 251.91 1000 ha | +3.1% |
| 1997 | 260.07 1000 ha | +3.2% |
| 1998 | 269.08 1000 ha | +3.5% |
| 1999 | 277.82 1000 ha | +3.2% |
| 2000 | 287.15 1000 ha | +3.4% |
| 2001 | 302.22 1000 ha | +5.2% |
| 2002 | 321.23 1000 ha | +6.3% |
| 2003 | 338.89 1000 ha | +5.5% |
| 2004 | 355.75 1000 ha | +5.0% |
| 2005 | 377.02 1000 ha | +6.0% |
| 2006 | 393.56 1000 ha | +4.4% |
| 2007 | 412.31 1000 ha | +4.8% |
| 2008 | 425.82 1000 ha | +3.3% |
| 2009 | 439.86 1000 ha | +3.3% |
| 2010 | 453.28 1000 ha | +3.1% |
| 2011 | 466.48 1000 ha | +2.9% |
| 2012 | 482.56 1000 ha | +3.4% |
| 2013 | 506.19 1000 ha | +4.9% |
| 2014 | 531.36 1000 ha | +5.0% |
| 2015 | 547.96 1000 ha | +3.1% |
| 2016 | 548.26 1000 ha | +0.1% |
| 2017 | 588.45 1000 ha | +7.3% |
| 2018 | 609.76 1000 ha | +3.6% |
| 2019 | 613.11 1000 ha | +0.5% |
| 2020 | 613.11 1000 ha | +0.0% |
| 2021 | 621.5 1000 ha | +1.4% |
| 2022 | 632.48 1000 ha | +1.8% |
Spain compared with similar countries
- Spain's 632.48 1000 ha is above the median for high income countries, which is 31.86 1000 ha, 19.9× the median. (73 countries reporting)
- Spain's 632.48 1000 ha is above the median for Europe & Central Asia, which is 81.12 1000 ha, 7.8× the median. (51 countries reporting)
Averages by decade
| Decade | Average | Lowest | Highest | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1990s | 249.57 1000 ha | 225.32 1000 ha | 277.82 1000 ha | 8 |
| 2000s | 365.38 1000 ha | 287.15 1000 ha | 439.86 1000 ha | 10 |
| 2010s | 534.74 1000 ha | 453.28 1000 ha | 613.11 1000 ha | 10 |
| 2020s | 622.36 1000 ha | 613.11 1000 ha | 632.48 1000 ha | 3 |
Countries ranked near Spain
- 17 Micronesia (Federated States of) 3.4 1000 ha compare
- 17 South Africa 783.83 1000 ha compare
- 18 Nigeria 743.44 1000 ha compare
- 19 Romania 668.25 1000 ha compare
- 19 Polynesia 1.35 1000 ha compare
- 20 Wallis and Futuna Islands 0.04 1000 ha compare
- 21 Poland 598.94 1000 ha compare
- 22 Argentina 587.46 1000 ha compare
- 23 Uzbekistan 430.44 1000 ha compare
More environment data for Spain
- Historical exposure to drought — Land soil moisture anomaly -1.67 Percentage change (2025)
- Historical exposure to drought — Cropland soil moisture anomaly -1.4 Percentage change (2025)
- Standard Deviation, annual growth rate 0 % change on previous year (2025)
- Standard Deviation 0.402 °C (2025)
- Temperature change 2.3 °C (2025)
- Wood-based panels — Production, annual growth rate 10.36 % change on previous year (2024)
- Total greenhouse gas emissions excluding LULUCF (Mt CO2e), annual -0.4277 % 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 -0.5136 % change on previous year (2024)
Frequently asked questions
- What is artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area in Spain?
- Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area in Spain was 632.48 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 Spain?
- The highest recorded value was 632.48 1000 ha in 2022.
- What is the lowest artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area recorded in Spain?
- The lowest recorded value was 225.32 1000 ha in 1992.
- How does Spain rank for artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area?
- Spain ranks 20th out of 224 countries with data for 2022.
- Is artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area rising or falling in Spain?
- Over the last ten years it is up 31.1%. The long-run trend across the full record is rising.
- Where does this Spain 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.