How does Eastern Asia rank for artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area?

Eastern Asia ranks 4th out of 29 groups with data for 2024.

Is artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area rising or falling in Eastern Asia?

Over the last ten years it is up 5.4%. The long-run trend across the full record is rising.

Where does this Eastern 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 Eastern Asia

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

Eastern Asia: Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — Area was 20,579 1000 ha in 2024. ▲ Rising

Latest (2024)

20,579 1000 ha

Change on year

up 0.1%

Rank

4th

of 29 groups

All-time high

20,579 1000 ha

in 2024

All-time low

17,813 1000 ha

in 2001

Years of data

2001–2024

Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — Area in Eastern Asia, 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 Eastern Asia is 20,579 1000 ha, measured in 2024. That is the highest value across all 24 years on record.

The figure is up 0.1% on the previous year and up 5.4% over ten years.

Over the whole period, artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area in Eastern Asia peaked at 20,579 1000 ha in 2024 and was at its lowest, 17,813 1000 ha, in 2001.

Eastern Asia ranks 4th of 29 groups on this measure, in the top quarter.

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

Averages by decade

Decade	Average	Lowest	Highest	Years
2000s	18,324 1000 ha	17,813 1000 ha	18,819 1000 ha	9
2010s	19,568 1000 ha	18,937 1000 ha	20,187 1000 ha	10
2020s	20,485 1000 ha	20,338 1000 ha	20,579 1000 ha	5

Countries ranked near Eastern 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
6 Russian Federation 3,155 1000 ha compare
7 Germany 2,597 1000 ha compare

See the full ranking of 269 places →

More environment data for Eastern Asia

Standard Deviation 0.309 °C (2025)
Temperature change 1.98 °C (2025)
Recovered paper — Production 98.06 million t (2024)
Total fibre furnish — Production 137.56 million t (2024)
Cropland — Share in Agricultural land 27.3 % (2024)
Nutrient potash K2O (total) — Use per value of agricultural production 8.54 g/Int$ (2024)
Country area — Area 1.18 million 1000 ha (2024)
Land area — Area 1.16 million 1000 ha (2024)
Agriculture — Area 508,690 1000 ha (2024)
Agricultural land — Area 508,590 1000 ha (2024)

All data for Eastern Asia →

Frequently asked questions

What is artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area in Eastern Asia?: Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area in Eastern Asia was 20,579 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 Eastern Asia?: The highest recorded value was 20,579 1000 ha in 2024.
What is the lowest artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area recorded in Eastern Asia?: The lowest recorded value was 17,813 1000 ha in 2001.
How does Eastern Asia rank for artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area?: Eastern Asia ranks 4th out of 29 groups with data for 2024.
Is artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area rising or falling in Eastern Asia?: Over the last ten years it is up 5.4%. The long-run trend across the full record is rising.
Where does this Eastern 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.