Arab World: Forest area (% of land area)

Key figures

What the numbers say

In 2023, Arab World's forest area (% of land area) fell 0.02 percentage points on 2022 (from 2.77% to 2.76%).

Across the 30 yearly changes before that (1993 to 2022), the average change was +0.03 percentage points and a typical year strayed about 0.23 percentage points from that (the standard deviation). This year's change was 0.2 standard deviations below that average, so it was an ordinary year: it sits within the range of normal year-to-year movement.

On record, the biggest yearly rise was 1.26 percentage points in 2012 and the biggest yearly fall was 0.02 percentage points in 2018. The numbers show how large and when, not why; for the cause, look at what happened in that country in those years.

From 2014 to 2023 the straight-line trend is downward, about 0.02 percentage points a year. A straight line explains 100% of the movement over 10 observed years.

Worked out from the yearly values above. How the checks work: standard deviation, z-scores and straight-line trends.

How it compares

See how every economy compares in the full ranking.

What this measures

Forest area (% of land area) is the share of total land area that is 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 (for example, in fruit plantations and agroforestry systems) and trees in urban parks and gardens.

Limitations: FAO has been collecting and analyzing data on forest area since 1946. This is done at intervals of 5-10 years as part of the Global Forest Resources Assessment (FRA). FAO reports data for 229 countries and territories; for the remaining 56 small island states and territories where no information is provided, a report is prepared by FAO using existing information and a literature search. The data are aggregated at sub-regional, regional and global levels by the FRA team at FAO, and estimates are produced by straight summation. The lag between the reference year and the actual production of data series as well as the frequency of data production varies between countries.

Regional and income-group figures are computed by the World Bank as a weighted average.

All 34 values

Forest area (% of land area) in nearby economies

• Afghanistan — 1.85% (2024)
• Algeria — 0.71% (2024)
• Bahrain — 4.86% (2024)
• Djibouti — 0.26% (2024)
• Egypt, Arab Rep. — 0.00412% (2024)
• Iran, Islamic Rep. — 6.63% (2024)
• Iraq — 1.61% (2024)
• Israel — 6.84% (2024)
• Jordan — 0.8% (2024)
• Kuwait — 0.35% (2024)
• Lebanon — 13.8% (2024)
• Libya

More environment data for Arab World

• Population in the largest city (% of urban population) — 27.61% (2025)
• Population in urban agglomerations of more than 1 million (% of total population) — 22.81% (2025)
• Rural population — 201.16 million (2025)
• Rural population (% of total population) — 39.96% (2025)
• Urban population — 302.2 million (2025)
• Urban population (% of total population) — 60.04% (2025)
• Aquaculture production (metric tons) — 1.83 million (2024)
• Capture fisheries production (metric tons) — 3.97 million (2024)
• Total fisheries production (metric tons) — 5.8 million (2024)

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Questions people ask

What is Arab World's forest area (% of land area)?

2.76% in 2023, according to the World Bank (World Development Indicators).

How has it changed since 1990?

It is up 0.97 percentage points from 1.79% in 1990. The highest value was 2.96% in 2012 and the lowest 1.7% in 2011.

Is the latest change in forest area (% of land area) unusual for Arab World?

In 2023, Arab World's forest area (% of land area) fell 0.02 percentage points on 2022 (from 2.77% to 2.76%). Across the 30 yearly changes before that (1993 to 2022), the average change was +0.03 percentage points and a typical year strayed about 0.23 percentage points from that (the standard deviation). This year's change was 0.2 standard deviations below that average, so it was an ordinary year: it sits within the range of normal year-to-year movement.

Where does this data come from?

The World Bank's World Development Indicators, licensed CC BY 4.0. Original source: FAOSTAT, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), uri: https://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/RL, publisher: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

Source

World Bank, World Development Indicators, indicator AG.LND.FRST.ZS, licensed CC BY 4.0. Original source: FAOSTAT, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), uri: https://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/RL, publisher: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Figures are fetched from the World Bank API and refreshed monthly; see the series on data.worldbank.org. The full definition and method are in the World Bank's metadata glossary. Comparisons use the same World Bank release.

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