Forest area in Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea: Forest area was 34.03 million hectares in 2025. ▬ Flat
Forest area in Papua New Guinea, 1990–2025
Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2025) – with major processing by Our World in Data. Measured in hectares.
Analysis
The most recent figure for forest area in Papua New Guinea is 34.03 million hectares, measured in 2025. That is the lowest value across all 36 years on record.
That represents a change of down 0.4% over ten years.
Over the whole period, forest area in Papua New Guinea peaked at 34.61 million hectares in 1990 and was at its lowest, 34.03 million hectares, in 2025.
That places Papua New Guinea 20th out of 235 countries with data for 2025, putting it in the top 10%.
Averages by decade
| Decade | Average | Lowest | Highest | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1990s | 34.52 million hectares | 34.42 million hectares | 34.61 million hectares | 10 |
| 2000s | 34.30 million hectares | 34.20 million hectares | 34.40 million hectares | 10 |
| 2010s | 34.14 million hectares | 34.07 million hectares | 34.18 million hectares | 10 |
| 2020s | 34.04 million hectares | 34.03 million hectares | 34.05 million hectares | 6 |
Countries ranked near Papua New Guinea
More environment data for Papua New Guinea
- Total greenhouse gas emissions excluding LULUCF 10.76 Mt CO2e (2024)
- Total greenhouse gas emissions excluding LULUCF per capita 1.02 t CO2e/capita (2024)
- Methane (CH4) emissions from Agriculture 0.4503 Mt CO2e (2024)
- Methane (CH4) emissions from Building (Energy) 0.4689 Mt CO2e (2024)
- Methane (CH4) emissions from Fugitive Emissions (Energy) 1.92 Mt CO2e (2024)
- Methane (CH4) emissions from Industrial Combustion (Energy) 0.003 Mt CO2e (2024)
- Methane (CH4) emissions (total) excluding LULUCF 3.71 Mt CO2e (2024)
- Methane (CH4) emissions from Power Industry (Energy) 0.0024 Mt CO2e (2024)
- Methane (CH4) emissions from Transport (Energy) 0.0104 Mt CO2e (2024)
- Methane (CH4) emissions from Waste 0.8618 Mt CO2e (2024)
Frequently asked questions
- What is forest area in Papua New Guinea?
- Forest area in Papua New Guinea was 34.03 million hectares in 2025, according to Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2025) – with major processing by Our World in Data.
- What is the highest forest area recorded in Papua New Guinea?
- The highest recorded value was 34.61 million hectares in 1990.
- What is the lowest forest area recorded in Papua New Guinea?
- The lowest recorded value was 34.03 million hectares in 2025.
- How does Papua New Guinea rank for forest area?
- Papua New Guinea ranks 20th out of 235 countries with data for 2025.
- Is forest area rising or falling in Papua New Guinea?
- Over the last ten years it is down 0.4%. The long-run trend across the full record is flat.
- Where does this Papua New Guinea data come from?
- The figures come from Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2025) – with major processing by Our World in Data, published as part of Forest area. Statizoid updates them automatically from the source API.
Download this data
CSV · JSON — 36 observations, free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 (Our World in Data).
About this data
Forest area is land under natural or planted stands of trees of at least 5 meters in situ, whether productive or not, and excludes tree stands in agricultural production systems.