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

New Zealand: Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — Area was 131.44 1000 ha in 2024. ▲ Rising

Latest (2024)
131.44 1000 ha
Change on year
up 0.1%
World rank
67th
of 223 countries
All-time high
131.57 1000 ha
in 2022
All-time low
121.17 1000 ha
in 2001
Years of data
24
2001–2024

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

0501001502001201220242001: 121.2 1000 ha2002: 124.7 1000 ha2003: 126.2 1000 ha2004: 127.1 1000 ha2005: 128.2 1000 ha2006: 128.6 1000 ha2007: 128.8 1000 ha2008: 129 1000 ha2009: 129.2 1000 ha2010: 129.5 1000 ha2011: 129.7 1000 ha2012: 129.5 1000 ha2013: 129.5 1000 ha2014: 129.7 1000 ha2015: 130.1 1000 ha2016: 130 1000 ha2017: 130.2 1000 ha2018: 130.2 1000 ha2019: 130.7 1000 ha2020: 131.2 1000 ha2021: 131.3 1000 ha2022: 131.6 1000 ha2023: 131.3 1000 ha2024: 131.4 1000 ha

Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Measured in 1000 ha.

Analysis

New Zealand recorded 131.44 1000 ha for artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area in 2024.

That represents a change of up 0.1% on the previous year and up 1.4% over ten years.

Over the whole period, artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area in New Zealand peaked at 131.57 1000 ha in 2022 and was at its lowest, 121.17 1000 ha, in 2001.

That places New Zealand 67th out of 223 countries with data for 2024, putting it in the middle of the range.

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

Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — Area in New Zealand, year by year

Annual values for Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — Area from MODIS in New Zealand, 2001 to 2024.
Year 1000 ha Change
2001 121.17 1000 ha
2002 124.7 1000 ha +2.9%
2003 126.22 1000 ha +1.2%
2004 127.08 1000 ha +0.7%
2005 128.18 1000 ha +0.9%
2006 128.61 1000 ha +0.3%
2007 128.82 1000 ha +0.2%
2008 129.04 1000 ha +0.2%
2009 129.19 1000 ha +0.1%
2010 129.49 1000 ha +0.2%
2011 129.7 1000 ha +0.2%
2012 129.53 1000 ha -0.1%
2013 129.51 1000 ha -0.0%
2014 129.66 1000 ha +0.1%
2015 130.11 1000 ha +0.3%
2016 130.02 1000 ha -0.1%
2017 130.22 1000 ha +0.2%
2018 130.17 1000 ha -0.0%
2019 130.65 1000 ha +0.4%
2020 131.18 1000 ha +0.4%
2021 131.31 1000 ha +0.1%
2022 131.57 1000 ha +0.2%
2023 131.31 1000 ha -0.2%
2024 131.44 1000 ha +0.1%

Averages by decade

DecadeAverage LowestHighest Years
2000s 127 1000 ha 121.17 1000 ha 129.19 1000 ha 9
2010s 129.91 1000 ha 129.49 1000 ha 130.65 1000 ha 10
2020s 131.36 1000 ha 131.18 1000 ha 131.57 1000 ha 5

Countries ranked near New Zealand

  1. 64 Paraguay 142.88 1000 ha compare
  2. 65 Tajikistan 133.76 1000 ha compare
  3. 66 Mozambique 133.29 1000 ha compare
  4. 68 Israel 129.42 1000 ha compare
  5. 69 Puerto Rico 129.31 1000 ha compare
  6. 70 Afghanistan 119.96 1000 ha compare

See the full ranking of 269 places →

More environment data for New Zealand

All data for New Zealand →

Frequently asked questions

What is artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area in New Zealand?
Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area in New Zealand was 131.44 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 New Zealand?
The highest recorded value was 131.57 1000 ha in 2022.
What is the lowest artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area recorded in New Zealand?
The lowest recorded value was 121.17 1000 ha in 2001.
How does New Zealand rank for artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area?
New Zealand ranks 67th out of 223 countries with data for 2024.
Is artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area rising or falling in New Zealand?
Over the last ten years it is up 1.4%. The long-run trend across the full record is rising.
Where does this New Zealand 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).

Share, cite or embed this page

Cite this page

Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — Area in New Zealand. Statizoid, drawing on Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Retrieved 23 August 2026, from https://environment.statizoid.com/stat/artificial-surfaces-including-urban-and-associated-areas-area-from-modis/new-zealand/

Embed or link this data

Paste this into a page to link back to these figures. The data itself is free to reuse under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO (FAO); please keep the attribution.

<a href="https://environment.statizoid.com/stat/artificial-surfaces-including-urban-and-associated-areas-area-from-modis/new-zealand/">Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — Area in New Zealand</a> — Statizoid

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

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.