Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — Area in South America
South America: Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — Area was 8,623 1000 ha in 2024. ▬ Flat
Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — Area in South America, 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 South America stood at 8,623 1000 ha. That is the highest value across all 24 years on record.
That represents a change of up 0.5% over ten years.
Over the whole period, artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area in South America peaked at 8,623 1000 ha in 2024 and was at its lowest, 8,500 1000 ha, in 2001.
That places South America 8th out of 26 groups with data for 2024, putting it in the middle of the range.
Averages by decade
| Decade | Average | Lowest | Highest | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000s | 8,537 1000 ha | 8,500 1000 ha | 8,554 1000 ha | 9 |
| 2010s | 8,582 1000 ha | 8,559 1000 ha | 8,603 1000 ha | 10 |
| 2020s | 8,616 1000 ha | 8,608 1000 ha | 8,623 1000 ha | 5 |
Countries ranked near South America
More environment data for South America
- Historical exposure to drought — Cropland soil moisture anomaly -6.52 Percentage change (2025)
- Historical exposure to drought — Land soil moisture anomaly -4.98 Percentage change (2025)
- Temperature change 1.23 °C (2025)
- Standard Deviation 0.218 °C (2025)
- Standard Deviation, annual growth rate 0 % change on previous year (2025)
- Total fibre furnish — Production, annual growth rate 4.24 % change on previous year (2024)
- Other paper and paperboard, not elsewhere specified — Import value -5.13 % change on previous year (2024)
- Exposure to drought — Cropland soil moisture anomaly -9.52 Percentage change (2024)
- Exposure to drought — Land soil moisture anomaly -8.79 Percentage change (2024)
- Other paper and paperboard, not elsewhere specified — Import 6.57 % change on previous year (2024)
Frequently asked questions
- What is artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area in South America?
- Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area in South America was 8,623 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 South America?
- The highest recorded value was 8,623 1000 ha in 2024.
- What is the lowest artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area recorded in South America?
- The lowest recorded value was 8,500 1000 ha in 2001.
- How does South America rank for artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area?
- South America ranks 8th out of 26 groups with data for 2024.
- Is artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area rising or falling in South America?
- Over the last ten years it is up 0.5%. The long-run trend across the full record is flat.
- Where does this South America 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.