Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — Area in Europe
Europe: Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — Area was 17,392 1000 ha in 2024. ▬ Flat
Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — Area in Europe, 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 Europe is 17,392 1000 ha, measured in 2024. That is the highest value across all 24 years on record.
The figure is up 0.7% over ten years.
Over the whole period, artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area in Europe peaked at 17,392 1000 ha in 2024 and was at its lowest, 17,027 1000 ha, in 2001.
That places Europe 5th out of 29 groups with data for 2024, putting it in the top quarter.
Averages by decade
| Decade | Average | Lowest | Highest | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000s | 17,164 1000 ha | 17,027 1000 ha | 17,220 1000 ha | 9 |
| 2010s | 17,277 1000 ha | 17,235 1000 ha | 17,340 1000 ha | 10 |
| 2020s | 17,375 1000 ha | 17,356 1000 ha | 17,392 1000 ha | 5 |
Countries ranked near Europe
More environment data for Europe
- Agriculture — Area 460,603 1000 ha (2024)
- Permanent crops — Share in Agricultural land 3.46 % (2024)
- Permanent meadows and pastures — Area 170,878 1000 ha (2024)
- Permanent meadows and pastures — Share in Agricultural land 37.54 % (2024)
- Permanent meadows and pastures — Share in Land area 7.72 % (2024)
- Permanent crops — Area 15,732 1000 ha (2024)
- Country area — Area 2.35 million 1000 ha (2024)
- Land area — Area 2.21 million 1000 ha (2024)
- Inland waters — Area 92,972 1000 ha (2024)
- Cropland — Share in Agricultural land 62.81 % (2024)
Frequently asked questions
- What is artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area in Europe?
- Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area in Europe was 17,392 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 Europe?
- The highest recorded value was 17,392 1000 ha in 2024.
- What is the lowest artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area recorded in Europe?
- The lowest recorded value was 17,027 1000 ha in 2001.
- How does Europe rank for artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area?
- Europe ranks 5th out of 29 groups with data for 2024.
- Is artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area rising or falling in Europe?
- Over the last ten years it is up 0.7%. The long-run trend across the full record is flat.
- Where does this Europe 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.