Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — Area in China
China: Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — Area was 16,225 1000 ha in 2024. ▲ Rising
Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — Area in China, 2001–2024
Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Measured in 1000 ha.
Analysis
The most recent figure for artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area in China is 16,225 1000 ha, measured in 2024. That is the highest value across all 24 years on record.
That represents a change of up 0.1% on the previous year and up 6.8% over ten years.
Over the whole period, artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area in China peaked at 16,225 1000 ha in 2024 and was at its lowest, 13,532 1000 ha, in 2001.
That places China 1st out of 223 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.
Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — Area in China, year by year
| Year | 1000 ha | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2001 | 13,532 1000 ha | — |
| 2002 | 13,662 1000 ha | +1.0% |
| 2003 | 13,797 1000 ha | +1.0% |
| 2004 | 13,920 1000 ha | +0.9% |
| 2005 | 14,015 1000 ha | +0.7% |
| 2006 | 14,142 1000 ha | +0.9% |
| 2007 | 14,258 1000 ha | +0.8% |
| 2008 | 14,349 1000 ha | +0.6% |
| 2009 | 14,506 1000 ha | +1.1% |
| 2010 | 14,622 1000 ha | +0.8% |
| 2011 | 14,765 1000 ha | +1.0% |
| 2012 | 14,885 1000 ha | +0.8% |
| 2013 | 15,024 1000 ha | +0.9% |
| 2014 | 15,196 1000 ha | +1.1% |
| 2015 | 15,352 1000 ha | +1.0% |
| 2016 | 15,460 1000 ha | +0.7% |
| 2017 | 15,577 1000 ha | +0.8% |
| 2018 | 15,683 1000 ha | +0.7% |
| 2019 | 15,842 1000 ha | +1.0% |
| 2020 | 15,989 1000 ha | +0.9% |
| 2021 | 16,095 1000 ha | +0.7% |
| 2022 | 16,157 1000 ha | +0.4% |
| 2023 | 16,206 1000 ha | +0.3% |
| 2024 | 16,225 1000 ha | +0.1% |
China compared with similar countries
- China's 16,225 1000 ha is above the median for upper middle income countries, which is 91.88 1000 ha, 176.6× the median. (52 countries reporting)
- China's 16,225 1000 ha is above the median for East Asia & Pacific, which is 3.66 1000 ha, 4433.1× the median. (27 countries reporting)
Averages by decade
| Decade | Average | Lowest | Highest | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000s | 14,020 1000 ha | 13,532 1000 ha | 14,506 1000 ha | 9 |
| 2010s | 15,241 1000 ha | 14,622 1000 ha | 15,842 1000 ha | 10 |
| 2020s | 16,134 1000 ha | 15,989 1000 ha | 16,225 1000 ha | 5 |
Countries ranked near China
- 2 China, mainland 15,855 1000 ha compare
- 2 Türkiye 1,027 1000 ha compare
- 3 Brazil 4,060 1000 ha compare
- 3 Iran (Islamic Republic of) 928.32 1000 ha compare
- 4 India 3,952 1000 ha compare
More environment data for China
- Standard Deviation, annual growth rate 0 % change on previous year (2025)
- Standard Deviation 0.279 °C (2025)
- Temperature change 1.92 °C (2025)
- Wood-based panels — Production, annual growth rate 5.29 % change on previous year (2024)
- Total greenhouse gas emissions excluding LULUCF (Mt CO2e), annual 0.8065 % 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 -0.2517 % change on previous year (2024)
- Methane (CH4) emissions from Agriculture (Mt CO2e), per unit of GDP 0 Mt CO2e per US$ of GDP (2024)
- Methane (CH4) emissions from Agriculture (Mt CO2e), per capita 0 Mt CO2e per person (2024)
Frequently asked questions
- What is artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area in China?
- Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area in China was 16,225 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?
- The highest recorded value was 16,225 1000 ha in 2024.
- What is the lowest artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area recorded in China?
- The lowest recorded value was 13,532 1000 ha in 2001.
- How does China rank for artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area?
- China ranks 1st out of 223 countries with data for 2024.
- Is artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area rising or falling in China?
- Over the last ten years it is up 6.8%. The long-run trend across the full record is rising.
- Where does this China 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.