Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan & Pakistan: Forest area (sq. km)

Key figures

What the numbers say

In 2023, Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan & Pakistan's forest area (sq. km) fell 0% on 2022 (from 279,251 to 279,185).

Across the 30 yearly changes before that (1993 to 2022), the average change was +0.2% and a typical year strayed about 0.3% from that (the standard deviation). This year's change was 0.6 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 0.6% in 2001 and the biggest yearly fall was 0.2% in 2016. 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 160.27 a year. A straight line explains 86% 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 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 34 values

Forest area (sq. km) in nearby economies

• Afghanistan — 12,094 (2025)
• Algeria — 16,914 (2025)
• Bahrain — 43.7 (2025)
• Djibouti — 59.3 (2025)
• Egypt, Arab Rep. — 41.1 (2025)
• Iran, Islamic Rep. — 107,510 (2025)
• Iraq — 6,926 (2025)
• Israel — 1,500 (2025)
• Jordan — 707 (2025)
• Kuwait — 63 (2025)
• Lebanon — 1,413 (2025)
• Libya — 2,053 (2025)
• Malta

More environment data for Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan & Pakistan

• Population in the largest city (% of urban population) — 23.64% (2025)
• Population in urban agglomerations of more than 1 million (% of total population) — 22.79% (2025)
• Rural population — 364.7 million (2025)
• Rural population (% of total population) — 44.04% (2025)
• Urban population — 463.33 million (2025)
• Urban population (% of total population) — 55.96% (2025)
• Aquaculture production (metric tons) — 2.75 million (2024)

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Questions people ask

What is Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan & Pakistan's forest area (sq. km)?

279,185 in 2023, according to the World Bank (World Development Indicators).

How has it changed since 1990?

It is up 4.7% from 266,663 in 1990 (0.14% a year on average, compounded). The highest value was 281,317 in 2010 and the lowest 265,724 in 2000.

Is the latest change in forest area (sq. km) unusual for Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan & Pakistan?

In 2023, Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan & Pakistan's forest area (sq. km) fell 0% on 2022 (from 279,251 to 279,185). Across the 30 yearly changes before that (1993 to 2022), the average change was +0.2% and a typical year strayed about 0.3% from that (the standard deviation). This year's change was 0.6 standard deviations below that average, so it was an ordinary year: it sits within the range of normal year-to-year movement.

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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