Palau's forest area (% of land area) was 90.83% in 2024, the latest year in the World Bank's World Development Indicators. That is up 1.91 percentage points from 88.91% in 2014.
Key figures
| Value | Year | |
|---|---|---|
| Latest | 90.83% | 2024 |
| Five years earlier | 89.85% | 2019 |
| Ten years earlier | 88.91% | 2014 |
| Highest | 90.83% | 2023 |
| Lowest | 83.24% | 1991 |
| Average since 2015 | 90.04% | 2015–2024 |
| First recorded | 83.24% | 1991 |
What the numbers say
In 2024, Palau's forest area (% of land area) fell 0 percentage points on 2023 (from 90.83% to 90.83%).
Across the 30 yearly changes before that (1994 to 2023), the average change was +0.23 percentage points and a typical year strayed about 0.06 percentage points from that (the standard deviation). This year's change was 4.0 standard deviations below that average, so it was unusually large compared with the rest of the record.
On record, the biggest yearly rise was 0.39 percentage points in 2020 and the biggest yearly fall was 0 percentage points in 2024. 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 upward, about 0.21 percentage points a year. A straight line explains 98% 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 91.59% 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 0.1%, against 0.33% 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, Palau had the 5th 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.
| Value | Year | |
|---|---|---|
| Palau | 90.83% | 2024 |
| World | 31.1% | 2023 |
| East Asia & Pacific | 27.26% | 2023 |
| High income | 36.2% | 2023 |
Closest to Palau in the 2024 ranking
- Micronesia, Fed. Sts. — 1st of 209: 92.07%
- Suriname — 2nd of 209: 91.54%
- Gabon — 3rd of 209: 91.44%
- Solomon Islands — 5th of 209: 89.84%
- Guyana — 6th of 209: 87.07%
- Equatorial Guinea — 7th of 209: 86.09%
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
| Year | Forest area (% of land area) |
|---|---|
| 2024 | 90.83 |
| 2023 | 90.83 |
| 2022 | 90.63 |
| 2021 | 90.44 |
| 2020 | 90.24 |
| 2019 | 89.85 |
| 2018 | 89.67 |
| 2017 | 89.48 |
| 2016 | 89.3 |
| 2015 | 89.11 |
| 2014 |
Forest area (% of land area) in nearby economies
- American Samoa — 79.65% (2024)
- Australia — 17.37% (2024)
- Brunei Darussalam — 72.11% (2024)
- Cambodia — 37.63% (2024)
- China — 24.02% (2024)
- Fiji — 61.74% (2024)
- French Polynesia — 42.45% (2024)
- Guam — 52.26% (2024)
- Indonesia — 50.67% (2024)
- Japan — 68.34% (2024)
- Kiribati — 1.32% (2024)
More environment data for Palau
- Rural population — 3,659 (2025)
- Rural population (% of total population) — 20.72% (2025)
- Urban population — 14,004 (2025)
- Urban population (% of total population) — 79.28% (2025)
- Aquaculture production (metric tons) — 11 (2024)
- Capture fisheries production (metric tons) — 803.11 (2024)
- Total fisheries production (metric tons) — 814.11 (2024)
- Rural population growth (annual %) — -0.55% (2025)
- Urban population growth (annual %) — -0.09% (2025)
- Agricultural land (sq. km) — 43 (2024)
- Surface area (sq. km)
Reading data like this
Questions people ask
- What is Palau's forest area (% of land area)?
- 90.83% in 2024, according to the World Bank (World Development Indicators).
- How has it changed since 1991?
- It is up 7.59 percentage points from 83.24% in 1991. The highest value was 90.83% in 2023 and the lowest 83.24% in 1991.
- How does Palau rank?
- 5th highest of 209 economies with data for 2024.
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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