Mozambique: Forest area (% of land area)

Key figures

What the numbers say

In 2024, Mozambique's forest area (% of land area) fell 0.34 percentage points on 2023 (from 41.68% to 41.34%).

Across the 30 yearly changes before that (1994 to 2023), the average change was −0.34 percentage points and a typical year strayed about 0 percentage points from that (the standard deviation). This year's change was 0.4 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 0.34 percentage points in 1991. The numbers show how large and when, not why; for the cause, look at what happened in that country in those years.

From 2015 to 2024 the straight-line trend is downward, about 0.34 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.

A straight-line projection, tested first

Extending that straight line gives about 40.32% for 2027. We show this only because the same method, fitted on earlier years, predicted 2022 to 2024 better than "no change" would have: its average miss was 0.00000613%, against 0.68% 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 2024, Mozambique had the 76th 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 Mozambique in the 2024 ranking

• St. Kitts and Nevis — 73rd of 209: 42.15%
• Canada — 74th of 209: 41.97%
• Myanmar — 75th of 209: 41.96%
• North Macedonia — 77th of 209: 40.81%
• Cameroon — 78th of 209: 40.74%
• Slovak Republic — 79th of 209: 40.32%

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 35 values

Forest area (% of land area) in nearby economies

• Angola — 51.15% (2024)
• Benin — 28.12% (2024)
• Botswana — 27.76% (2024)
• Burkina Faso — 12.27% (2024)
• Burundi — 10.89% (2024)
• Cabo Verde — 12.52% (2024)
• Cameroon — 40.74% (2024)
• Central African Republic — 72.46% (2024)
• Chad — 2.97% (2024)
• Comoros — 17.79% (2024)
• Congo, Dem. Rep. — 61.52% (2024)

More environment data for Mozambique

• Population in largest city — 1.98 million (2025)
• Population in the largest city (% of urban population) — 14.97% (2025)
• Population in urban agglomerations of more than 1 million — 3.21 million (2025)
• Population in urban agglomerations of more than 1 million (% of total population) — 9.02% (2025)
• Rural population — 22.37 million (2025)
• Rural population (% of total population) — 62.79% (2025)
• Urban population — 13.26 million (2025)
• Urban population (% of total population) — 37.21% (2025)
• Aquaculture production (metric tons) — 7,170 (2024)

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 Mozambique's forest area (% of land area)?

41.34% in 2024, according to the World Bank (World Development Indicators).

How has it changed since 1990?

It is down 11.55 percentage points from 52.89% in 1990. The highest value was 52.89% in 1990 and the lowest 41.34% in 2024.

How does Mozambique rank?

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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