Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — Area in Asia

Asia: Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — Area was 35,913 1000 ha in 2024. ▲ Rising

Latest (2024)
35,913 1000 ha
Change on year
up 0.2%
Rank
1st
of 20 groups
All-time high
35,913 1000 ha
in 2024
All-time low
32,191 1000 ha
in 2001
Years of data
24
2001–2024

Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — Area in Asia, 2001–2024

010.0k20.0k30.0k40.0k2001201220242001: 32.2k 1000 ha2002: 32.4k 1000 ha2003: 32.6k 1000 ha2004: 32.8k 1000 ha2005: 32.9k 1000 ha2006: 33.0k 1000 ha2007: 33.2k 1000 ha2008: 33.3k 1000 ha2009: 33.5k 1000 ha2010: 33.6k 1000 ha2011: 33.8k 1000 ha2012: 34.0k 1000 ha2013: 34.2k 1000 ha2014: 34.4k 1000 ha2015: 34.6k 1000 ha2016: 34.7k 1000 ha2017: 34.9k 1000 ha2018: 35.1k 1000 ha2019: 35.3k 1000 ha2020: 35.5k 1000 ha2021: 35.6k 1000 ha2022: 35.7k 1000 ha2023: 35.9k 1000 ha2024: 35.9k 1000 ha

Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Measured in 1000 ha.

Analysis

Asia recorded 35,913 1000 ha for artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area in 2024. That is the highest value across all 24 years on record.

That represents a change of up 0.2% on the previous year and up 4.4% over ten years.

Over the whole period, artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area in Asia peaked at 35,913 1000 ha in 2024 and was at its lowest, 32,191 1000 ha, in 2001.

That places Asia 1st out of 20 groups with data for 2024, putting it in the top 10%.

The long-run direction has been consistently rising across the 24 years of available data.

Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — Area in Asia, year by year

Annual values for Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — Area from MODIS in Asia, 2001 to 2024.
Year 1000 ha Change
2001 32,191 1000 ha —
2002 32,432 1000 ha +0.8%
2003 32,603 1000 ha +0.5%
2004 32,756 1000 ha +0.5%
2005 32,880 1000 ha +0.4%
2006 33,040 1000 ha +0.5%
2007 33,186 1000 ha +0.4%
2008 33,307 1000 ha +0.4%
2009 33,494 1000 ha +0.6%
2010 33,643 1000 ha +0.4%
2011 33,830 1000 ha +0.6%
2012 33,998 1000 ha +0.5%
2013 34,175 1000 ha +0.5%
2014 34,391 1000 ha +0.6%
2015 34,592 1000 ha +0.6%
2016 34,737 1000 ha +0.4%
2017 34,896 1000 ha +0.5%
2018 35,057 1000 ha +0.5%
2019 35,272 1000 ha +0.6%
2020 35,473 1000 ha +0.6%
2021 35,624 1000 ha +0.4%
2022 35,733 1000 ha +0.3%
2023 35,853 1000 ha +0.3%
2024 35,913 1000 ha +0.2%

Averages by decade

DecadeAverage LowestHighest Years
2000s 32,877 1000 ha 32,191 1000 ha 33,494 1000 ha 9
2010s 34,459 1000 ha 33,643 1000 ha 35,272 1000 ha 10
2020s 35,719 1000 ha 35,473 1000 ha 35,913 1000 ha 5

Countries ranked near Asia

  1. 1 China 16,225 1000 ha compare
  2. 2 China, mainland 15,855 1000 ha compare
  3. 2 Türkiye 1,027 1000 ha compare
  4. 3 Brazil 4,060 1000 ha compare
  5. 3 Iran (Islamic Republic of) 928.32 1000 ha compare
  6. 4 India 3,952 1000 ha compare

See the full ranking of 269 places →

More environment data for Asia

All data for Asia →

Frequently asked questions

What is artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area in Asia?
Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area in Asia was 35,913 1000 ha in 2024, according to Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
What is the highest artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area recorded in Asia?
The highest recorded value was 35,913 1000 ha in 2024.
What is the lowest artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area recorded in Asia?
The lowest recorded value was 32,191 1000 ha in 2001.
How does Asia rank for artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area?
Asia ranks 1st out of 20 groups with data for 2024.
Is artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area rising or falling in Asia?
Over the last ten years it is up 4.4%. The long-run trend across the full record is rising.
Where does this 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 MODIS. Statizoid updates them automatically from the source API.

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Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — Area in Asia. Statizoid, drawing on Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Retrieved 27 September 2026, from https://environment.statizoid.com/stat/artificial-surfaces-including-urban-and-associated-areas-area-from-modis/asia/

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About this data

Indicator
Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — Area from MODIS
Unit
1000 ha
Source
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Licence
CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO (FAO)
Coverage
269 places, 6,390 data points, 2001–2024
Last refreshed

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.