Terrestrial barren land — Area from MODIS in Europe

Europe: Terrestrial barren land — Area from MODIS was 20,258 1000 ha in 2024. ▼ Falling

Latest (2024)
20,258 1000 ha
Change on year
down 3.2%
Rank
15th
of 26 groups
All-time high
24,139 1000 ha
in 2003
All-time low
20,258 1000 ha
in 2024
Years of data
24
2001–2024

Terrestrial barren land — Area from MODIS in Europe, 2001–2024

05.0k10.0k15.0k20.0k25.0k2001201220242001: 23.8k 1000 ha2002: 23.7k 1000 ha2003: 24.1k 1000 ha2004: 23.4k 1000 ha2005: 23.6k 1000 ha2006: 23.2k 1000 ha2007: 23.1k 1000 ha2008: 22.3k 1000 ha2009: 21.2k 1000 ha2010: 20.8k 1000 ha2011: 21.1k 1000 ha2012: 21.4k 1000 ha2013: 21.7k 1000 ha2014: 22.2k 1000 ha2015: 21.9k 1000 ha2016: 22.2k 1000 ha2017: 22.8k 1000 ha2018: 22.8k 1000 ha2019: 22.1k 1000 ha2020: 22.3k 1000 ha2021: 22.1k 1000 ha2022: 21.5k 1000 ha2023: 20.9k 1000 ha2024: 20.3k 1000 ha

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

Analysis

Europe recorded 20,258 1000 ha for terrestrial barren land — area from modis in 2024. That is the lowest value across all 24 years on record.

That represents a change of down 3.2% on the previous year and down 8.6% over ten years.

Over the whole period, terrestrial barren land — area from modis in Europe peaked at 24,139 1000 ha in 2003 and was at its lowest, 20,258 1000 ha, in 2024.

Europe ranks 15th of 26 groups on this measure, in the middle of the range.

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

Terrestrial barren land — Area from MODIS in Europe, year by year

Annual values for Terrestrial barren land — Area from MODIS in Europe, 2001 to 2024.
Year 1000 ha Change
2001 23,803 1000 ha —
2002 23,697 1000 ha -0.4%
2003 24,139 1000 ha +1.9%
2004 23,372 1000 ha -3.2%
2005 23,582 1000 ha +0.9%
2006 23,192 1000 ha -1.7%
2007 23,055 1000 ha -0.6%
2008 22,341 1000 ha -3.1%
2009 21,219 1000 ha -5.0%
2010 20,763 1000 ha -2.1%
2011 21,081 1000 ha +1.5%
2012 21,417 1000 ha +1.6%
2013 21,663 1000 ha +1.1%
2014 22,153 1000 ha +2.3%
2015 21,906 1000 ha -1.1%
2016 22,166 1000 ha +1.2%
2017 22,800 1000 ha +2.9%
2018 22,832 1000 ha +0.1%
2019 22,058 1000 ha -3.4%
2020 22,252 1000 ha +0.9%
2021 22,135 1000 ha -0.5%
2022 21,476 1000 ha -3.0%
2023 20,933 1000 ha -2.5%
2024 20,258 1000 ha -3.2%

Averages by decade

DecadeAverage LowestHighest Years
2000s 23,155 1000 ha 21,219 1000 ha 24,139 1000 ha 9
2010s 21,884 1000 ha 20,763 1000 ha 22,832 1000 ha 10
2020s 21,411 1000 ha 20,258 1000 ha 22,252 1000 ha 5

Countries ranked near Europe

  1. 12 Chad 69,462 1000 ha compare
  2. 12 Democratic Republic of the Congo 5.92 1000 ha compare
  3. 13 Lao People's Democratic Republic 5.69 1000 ha compare
  4. 13 Mongolia 47,327 1000 ha compare
  5. 14 Canada 44,381 1000 ha compare
  6. 14 Melanesia 3.55 1000 ha compare
  7. 15 Democratic People's Republic of Korea 2.94 1000 ha compare
  8. 15 Yemen 36,818 1000 ha compare
  9. 16 Micronesia (Federated States of) 0.49 1000 ha compare
  10. 16 Pakistan 33,071 1000 ha compare
  11. 17 Afghanistan 30,947 1000 ha compare
  12. 18 Oman 30,045 1000 ha compare
  13. 18 Timor-Leste 0.06 1000 ha compare

See the full ranking of 269 places →

More environment data for Europe

All data for Europe →

Frequently asked questions

What is terrestrial barren land — area from modis in Europe?
Terrestrial barren land — area from modis in Europe was 20,258 1000 ha in 2024, according to Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
What is the highest terrestrial barren land — area from modis recorded in Europe?
The highest recorded value was 24,139 1000 ha in 2003.
What is the lowest terrestrial barren land — area from modis recorded in Europe?
The lowest recorded value was 20,258 1000 ha in 2024.
How does Europe rank for terrestrial barren land — area from modis?
Europe ranks 15th out of 26 groups with data for 2024.
Is terrestrial barren land — area from modis rising or falling in Europe?
Over the last ten years it is down 8.6%. The long-run trend across the full record is falling.
Where does this Europe data come from?
The figures come from Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, published as part of Terrestrial barren land — Area from MODIS. Statizoid updates them automatically from the source API.

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Terrestrial barren land — Area from MODIS in Europe. Statizoid, drawing on Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Retrieved 27 September 2026, from https://environment.statizoid.com/stat/terrestrial-barren-land-area-from-modis/europe/

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About this data

Indicator
Terrestrial barren land — 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.