Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — Area in World
World: Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — Area was 87,333 1000 ha in 2024. ▲ Rising
Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — Area in World, 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 World is 87,333 1000 ha, measured in 2024. That is the highest value across all 24 years on record.
Compared with earlier readings it is up 0.1% on the previous year and up 2.8% over ten years.
Over the whole period, artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area in World peaked at 87,333 1000 ha in 2024 and was at its lowest, 81,684 1000 ha, in 2001.
That places World 1st out of 29 groups 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.
Averages by decade
| Decade | Average | Lowest | Highest | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000s | 82,816 1000 ha | 81,684 1000 ha | 83,740 1000 ha | 9 |
| 2010s | 85,115 1000 ha | 83,970 1000 ha | 86,287 1000 ha | 10 |
| 2020s | 86,984 1000 ha | 86,570 1000 ha | 87,333 1000 ha | 5 |
Countries ranked near World
More environment data for World
- Inland waters — Area 443,046 1000 ha (2024)
- Land area equipped for irrigation — Area 354,701 1000 ha (2024)
- Land area equipped for irrigation — Share in Cropland 22.34 % (2024)
- Cropland — Share in Agricultural land 34.18 % (2024)
- Arable land — Share in Agricultural land 30.02 % (2024)
- Arable land — Area 1.39 million 1000 ha (2024)
- Cropland — Area per capita 0.19 ha/cap (2024)
- Cropland — Share in Land area 12.2 % (2024)
- Agricultural land — Value of agricultural production (Int. $) per Area 929.53 USD_PPP/ha (2024)
- Agricultural land — Area 4.64 million 1000 ha (2024)
Frequently asked questions
- What is artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area in World?
- Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area in World was 87,333 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 World?
- The highest recorded value was 87,333 1000 ha in 2024.
- What is the lowest artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area recorded in World?
- The lowest recorded value was 81,684 1000 ha in 2001.
- How does World rank for artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area?
- World ranks 1st out of 29 groups with data for 2024.
- Is artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area rising or falling in World?
- Over the last ten years it is up 2.8%. The long-run trend across the full record is rising.
- Where does this World 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.