Gabon: Forest area (sq. km)

Key figures

What the numbers say

In 2025, Gabon's forest area (sq. km) fell 0% on 2024 (from 235,620 to 235,553).

Across the 30 yearly changes before that (1995 to 2024), the average change was −0% and a typical year strayed about 0% 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 fall was 0.1% in 2015. The numbers show how large and when, not why; for the cause, look at what happened in that country in those years.

From 2016 to 2025 the straight-line trend is downward, about 67.32 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.

A straight-line projection, tested first

Extending that straight line gives about 235,338 for 2028. We show this only because the same method, fitted on earlier years, predicted 2023 to 2025 better than "no change" would have: its average miss was 59.79, against 134.7 for assuming no change. Treat it as a continuation of the recent pattern, not a forecast of events: it cannot see a recession, a policy change or a revision to the data.

See how a linear trend forecast works and the guide on forecasting without fooling yourself.

How it compares

In 2025, Gabon had the 26th highest value of the 209 economies reporting that year. Higher is not always better: for some indicators the lowest value is the one to aim for. See the full ranking.

Closest to Gabon in the 2025 ranking

• Myanmar — 23rd of 209: 270,953
• Ethiopia — 24th of 209: 267,471
• Japan — 25th of 209: 249,080
• South Africa — 27th of 209: 228,814
• Türkiye — 28th of 209: 228,058
• Finland — 29th of 209: 225,430

What this measures

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 (for example, in fruit plantations and agroforestry systems) and trees in urban parks and gardens.

Limitations: The Food and Agricultural Organization (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.

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

All 36 values

Forest area (sq. km) in nearby economies

• Angola — 632,623 (2025)
• Benin — 31,333 (2025)
• Botswana — 157,302 (2025)
• Burkina Faso — 32,370 (2025)
• Burundi — 2,796 (2025)
• Cabo Verde — 510.6 (2025)
• Cameroon — 191,432 (2025)
• Central African Republic — 450,949 (2025)
• Chad — 36,113 (2025)
• Comoros — 333.7 (2025)
• Congo, Dem. Rep. — 1.39 million (2025)
• Congo, Rep. — 218,538 (2025)

More environment data for Gabon

• Population in largest city — 899,225 (2025)
• Population in the largest city (% of urban population) — 37.66% (2025)
• Rural population — 205,177 (2025)
• Rural population (% of total population) — 7.91% (2025)
• Urban population — 2.39 million (2025)
• Urban population (% of total population) — 92.09% (2025)
• Aquaculture production (metric tons) — 103 (2024)
• Capture fisheries production (metric tons) — 30,140 (2024)
• Total fisheries production (metric tons) — 30,243 (2024)
• Rural population growth (annual %) — -0.69% (2025)

Reading data like this

• Where to find free public data, and how to check it before you trust it — 2 min read
• Data analysis examples: 6 worked from one dataset — 3 min read
• Real change or random noise? A plain guide to reading your numbers — 2 min read

Questions people ask

What is Gabon's forest area (sq. km)?

235,553 in 2025, according to the World Bank (World Development Indicators).

How has it changed since 1990?

It is down 0.92% from 237,742 in 1990. The highest value was 237,742 in 1990 and the lowest 235,553 in 2025.

How does Gabon rank?

26th highest of 209 economies with data for 2025.

Source

World Bank, World Development Indicators, indicator AG.LND.FRST.K2, 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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