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.

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

Name: Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — Area in Asia
Creator: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
License: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO (FAO)

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

2nd

of 29 groups

All-time high

35,913 1000 ha

in 2024

All-time low

32,191 1000 ha

in 2001

Years of data

2001–2024

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

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 2nd out of 29 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.

Averages by decade

Decade	Average	Lowest	Highest	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 China 16,225 1000 ha compare
2 China, mainland 15,855 1000 ha compare
3 Brazil 4,060 1000 ha compare
4 India 3,952 1000 ha compare
5 Japan 3,409 1000 ha compare

See the full ranking of 269 places →

More environment data for Asia

Arable land — Area 477,077 1000 ha (2024)
Land area equipped for irrigation — Area 251,913 1000 ha (2024)
Cropland — Share in Land area 18.55 % (2024)
Cropland — Share in Agricultural land 37.86 % (2024)
Cropland — Area per capita 0.12 ha/cap (2024)
Cropland — Area 577,168 1000 ha (2024)
Permanent meadows and pastures — Share in Agricultural land 62.13 % (2024)
Agricultural land — Value of agricultural production (Int. $) per Area 1,505 USD_PPP/ha (2024)
Nutrient potash K2O (total) — Agricultural Use 17.08 million t (2024)
Arable land — Share in Agricultural land 31.29 % (2024)

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 2nd out of 29 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.

Download this data

CSV · JSON — 24 observations, free to reuse under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO (FAO).

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: 12 August 2026

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.