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Mapped: Countries With the Most Forest Area per Capita
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Key Takeaways
- This graphic uncovers the world’s most forested countries, ranked by hectares of forest area per person.
- Guyana and Suriname, two South American nations, dominate with over 20+ hectares per person – roughly 40-45x the world average of 0.54 ha/capita.
The world’s forests are unevenly distributed, with countries like Canada and Russia containing hundreds of millions of hectares of forest area. But how that forest is shared among people varies dramatically around the globe.
In this graphic, we visualize each country’s forest area per capita, offering a unique perspective on the world’s tree coverage. While the average country has just 0.5 hectares of forest area per person, a select few boast significantly more.
Data & Discussion
The data for this visualization comes from the Food & Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. It measures each country’s total forest area in hectares, which we combined with 2025 population estimates to determine forest area per capita.
A hectare is equal to 10,000 square meters, which is about the size of an international rugby field. In city terms, it’s roughly two and a half acres, or enough space for 16 single-family homes.
| Rank | Country | Forest Area Per Capita (hectares) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Guyana | 23.0 |
| 2 | Suriname | 22.3 |
| 3 | Gabon | 10.2 |
| 4 | Canada | 8.9 |
| 5 | Central African Republic | 8.2 |
| 6 | Russian Federation | 5.7 |
| 7 | Botswana | 5.7 |
| 8 | Australia | 4.8 |
| 9 | Bolivia | 4.4 |
| 10 | Finland | 4.0 |
| 11 | Mongolia | 4.0 |
| 12 | Bhutan | 3.4 |
| 13 | Belize | 3.2 |
| 14 | Solomon Islands | 3.2 |
| 15 | Papua New Guinea | 2.7 |
| 16 | Namibia | 2.6 |
| 17 | Sweden | 2.6 |
| 18 | Vanuatu | 2.5 |
| 19 | Palau | 2.3 |
| 20 | Brazil | 2.3 |
| 21 | Norway | 2.2 |
| 22 | Zambia | 2.1 |
| 23 | Paraguay | 2.1 |
| 24 | Peru | 2.0 |
| 25 | New Zealand | 1.9 |
| 26 | Latvia | 1.9 |
| 27 | Estonia | 1.8 |
| 28 | Venezuela | 1.8 |
| 29 | Lao P.D.R. | 1.7 |
| 30 | Angola | 1.6 |
| 31 | Equatorial Guinea | 1.5 |
| 32 | Montenegro | 1.3 |
| 33 | DRC | 1.3 |
| 34 | Bahamas | 1.2 |
| 35 | Fiji | 1.2 |
| 36 | Colombia | 1.1 |
| 37 | Liberia | 1.1 |
| 38 | Guinea-Bissau | 1.0 |
| 39 | Panama | 1.0 |
| 40 | Belarus | 1.0 |
| 41 | Argentina | 1.0 |
| 42 | U.S. | 0.9 |
| 43 | Mozambique | 0.9 |
| 44 | Chile | 0.9 |
| 45 | Georgia | 0.8 |
| 46 | Brunei Darussalam | 0.8 |
| 47 | Zimbabwe | 0.8 |
| 48 | Lithuania | 0.8 |
| 49 | Dominica | 0.8 |
| 50 | Samoa | 0.8 |
| 51 | Timor-Leste | 0.7 |
| 52 | Nicaragua | 0.7 |
| 53 | Ecuador | 0.7 |
| 54 | Micronesia | 0.7 |
| 55 | Tanzania | 0.6 |
| 56 | Cameroon | 0.6 |
| 57 | Bulgaria | 0.6 |
| 58 | Bosnia & Herzegovina | 0.6 |
| 59 | Slovenia | 0.6 |
| 60 | Uruguay | 0.6 |
| 61 | North Macedonia | 0.6 |
| 62 | Malaysia | 0.6 |
| 63 | Costa Rica | 0.6 |
| 64 | Honduras | 0.5 |
| 65 | Serbia | 0.5 |
| 66 | World Average | 0.5 |
| 67 | Croatia | 0.5 |
| 68 | Mexico | 0.5 |
| 69 | Myanmar | 0.5 |
| 70 | Greece | 0.5 |
| 71 | Senegal | 0.5 |
| 72 | South Sudan | 0.5 |
| 73 | Sudan | 0.4 |
| 74 | Austria | 0.4 |
| 75 | Mali | 0.4 |
| 76 | Spain | 0.4 |
| 77 | Romania | 0.4 |
| 78 | Eswatini | 0.4 |
| 79 | Cambodia | 0.4 |
| 80 | Slovak Republic | 0.4 |
| 81 | South Africa | 0.4 |
| 82 | Albania | 0.3 |
| 83 | Turkmenistan | 0.3 |
| 84 | Indonesia | 0.3 |
| 85 | Madagascar | 0.3 |
| 86 | Portugal | 0.3 |
| 87 | Congo | 0.3 |
| 88 | Guinea | 0.3 |
| 89 | Ukraine | 0.3 |
| 90 | Somalia | 0.3 |
| 91 | Thailand | 0.3 |
| 92 | Sierra Leone | 0.3 |
| 93 | Czech Republic | 0.3 |
| 94 | Marshall Islands | 0.3 |
| 95 | Türkiye | 0.3 |
| 96 | Poland | 0.3 |
| 97 | Seychelles | 0.3 |
| 98 | France | 0.3 |
| 99 | Saint Vincent & the Grenadines | 0.3 |
| 100 | Ethiopia | 0.2 |
| 101 | Sao Tome and Principe | 0.2 |
| 102 | Jamaica | 0.2 |
| 103 | Mauritania | 0.2 |
| 104 | Hungary | 0.2 |
| 105 | Saint Kitts and Nevis | 0.2 |
| 106 | Nepal | 0.2 |
| 107 | Benin | 0.2 |
| 108 | Dominican Republic | 0.2 |
| 109 | Andorra | 0.2 |
| 110 | Japan | 0.2 |
| 111 | Ghana | 0.2 |
| 112 | Chad | 0.2 |
| 113 | Guatemala | 0.2 |
| 114 | Cyprus | 0.2 |
| 115 | Saint Lucia | 0.2 |
| 116 | Kyrgyz Republic | 0.2 |
| 117 | Kazakhstan | 0.2 |
| 118 | China | 0.2 |
| 119 | Italy | 0.2 |
| 120 | Trinidad and Tobago | 0.2 |
| 121 | Iceland | 0.2 |
| 122 | Republic of Moldova | 0.2 |
| 123 | Grenada | 0.2 |
| 124 | Ireland | 0.2 |
| 125 | Morocco | 0.2 |
| 126 | Liechtenstein | 0.1 |
| 127 | Vietnam | 0.1 |
| 128 | Switzerland | 0.1 |
| 129 | Puerto Rico | 0.1 |
| 130 | Germany | 0.1 |
| 131 | Burkina Faso | 0.1 |
| 132 | Luxembourg | 0.1 |
| 133 | Togo | 0.1 |
| 134 | Iran | 0.1 |
| 135 | South Korea | 0.1 |
| 136 | Azerbaijan | 0.1 |
| 137 | Côte d'Ivoire | 0.1 |
| 138 | Armenia | 0.1 |
| 139 | El Salvador | 0.1 |
| 140 | Denmark | 0.1 |
| 141 | Uzbekistan | 0.1 |
| 142 | Tuvalu | 0.1 |
| 143 | Cabo Verde | 0.1 |
| 144 | Tonga | 0.1 |
| 145 | Malawi | 0.1 |
| 146 | Saudi Arabia | 0.1 |
| 147 | Gambia | 0.1 |
| 148 | Antigua and Barbuda | 0.1 |
| 149 | Kenya | 0.1 |
| 150 | Nigeria | 0.1 |
| 151 | Philippines | 0.1 |
| 152 | Belgium | 0.1 |
| 153 | Tunisia | 0.1 |
| 154 | India | 0.050 |
| 155 | Uganda | 0.049 |
| 156 | UK | 0.047 |
| 157 | Rwanda | 0.045 |
| 158 | Tajikistan | 0.041 |
| 159 | Comoros | 0.037 |
| 160 | Niger | 0.036 |
| 161 | Algeria | 0.036 |
| 162 | Mauritius | 0.030 |
| 163 | Haiti | 0.030 |
| 164 | San Marino | 0.029 |
| 165 | Libya | 0.029 |
| 166 | UAE | 0.029 |
| 167 | Barbados | 0.022 |
| 168 | Netherlands | 0.020 |
| 169 | Burundi | 0.019 |
| 170 | Iraq | 0.015 |
| 171 | Israel | 0.015 |
| 172 | Lesotho | 0.014 |
| 173 | Pakistan | 0.013 |
| 174 | Yemen | 0.013 |
| 175 | Bangladesh | 0.011 |
| 176 | Maldives | 0.009 |
| 177 | Kiribati | 0.008 |
| 178 | Jordan | 0.006 |
| 179 | Djibouti | 0.006 |
| 180 | Aruba | 0.004 |
| 181 | Bahrain | 0.003 |
| 182 | Singapore | 0.003 |
| 183 | Kuwait | 0.001 |
| 184 | Malta | 0.001 |
| 185 | Qatar | 0.000 |
| 186 | Oman | 0.000 |
| 187 | Egypt | 0.000 |
| 188 | Nauru | 0.000 |
The World’s Most Forested Countries
Guyana and Suriname are the two biggest outliers, each offering more than 22 hectares of forest area per person.
This is due to these countries’ vast rainforests combined with their relatively small populations (both under 1 million people). The forests in this region make up the Guiana Shield, one of the largest remaining blocks of primary tropical forest on earth.
Other countries that rank highly include Canada and Russia, two of the world’s largest countries by total area. While these countries have much bigger populations than #1 ranked Guyana, their sheer amount of forest land results in an above-average per capita figure.
Learn More on the Voronoi App
If you enjoyed today’s post, check out Countries With the Most Freshwater Resources on Voronoi, the new app from Visual Capitalist.