Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — Area in China, mainland
China, mainland: Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — Area was 15,855 1000 ha in 2024. ▲ Rising
Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — Area in China, mainland, 2001–2024
Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Measured in 1000 ha.
Analysis
In 2024, artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area in China, mainland stood at 15,855 1000 ha. That is the highest value across all 24 years on record.
The figure is up 0.1% on the previous year and up 6.9% over ten years.
Over the whole period, artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area in China, mainland peaked at 15,855 1000 ha in 2024 and was at its lowest, 13,188 1000 ha, in 2001.
That places China, mainland 2nd out of 218 countries 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 | 13,665 1000 ha | 13,188 1000 ha | 14,144 1000 ha | 9 |
| 2010s | 14,874 1000 ha | 14,259 1000 ha | 15,474 1000 ha | 10 |
| 2020s | 15,765 1000 ha | 15,620 1000 ha | 15,855 1000 ha | 5 |
Countries ranked near China, mainland
More environment data for China, mainland
- Standard Deviation, annual growth rate 0 % change on previous year (2025)
- Standard Deviation 0.279 °C (2025)
- Temperature change 1.92 °C (2025)
- Cropland — Area 128,608 1000 ha (2024)
- Cropland — Area per capita 0.09 ha/cap (2024)
- Cropland — Share in Agricultural land 32.82 % (2024)
- Cropland — Share in Land area 13.7 % (2024)
- Arable land — Area 108,466 1000 ha (2024)
- Arable land — Share in Agricultural land 27.68 % (2024)
- Permanent crops — Area 20,142 1000 ha (2024)
Frequently asked questions
- What is artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area in China, mainland?
- Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area in China, mainland was 15,855 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 China, mainland?
- The highest recorded value was 15,855 1000 ha in 2024.
- What is the lowest artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area recorded in China, mainland?
- The lowest recorded value was 13,188 1000 ha in 2001.
- How does China, mainland rank for artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area?
- China, mainland ranks 2nd out of 218 countries with data for 2024.
- Is artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area rising or falling in China, mainland?
- Over the last ten years it is up 6.9%. The long-run trend across the full record is rising.
- Where does this China, mainland 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
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.