South Sudan: Forest area (% of land area)

Key figures

What the numbers say

In 2024, South Sudan's forest area (% of land area) rose 0 percentage points on 2023 (from 11.33% to 11.33%).

Across the 11 yearly changes before that (2013 to 2023), the average change was +0 percentage points and a typical year strayed about 0 percentage points from that (the standard deviation). This year's change was 0.2 standard deviations above 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 0.01 percentage points in 2014 and the biggest yearly fall was 0 percentage points 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 2015 to 2024 there is no clear straight-line trend: a straight line explains 4% of the movement over 10 observed years, so the value is moving around more than it is heading anywhere.

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

How it compares

In 2024, South Sudan had the 163rd 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 South Sudan in the 2024 ranking

• Sudan — 159th of 209: 11.86%
• Armenia — 160th of 209: 11.85%
• Uruguay — 161st of 209: 11.46%
• Moldova — 163rd of 209: 11.26%
• Turks and Caicos Islands — 164th of 209: 11.09%
• Netherlands — 165th of 209: 10.96%

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 13 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 South Sudan

• Population in largest city — 500,088 (2025)
• Population in the largest city (% of urban population) — 18.92% (2025)
• Rural population — 9.55 million (2025)
• Rural population (% of total population) — 78.32% (2025)
• Urban population — 2.64 million (2025)
• Urban population (% of total population) — 21.68% (2025)
• Rural population growth (annual %) — 1.64% (2025)
• Urban population growth (annual %) — 3.46% (2025)
• Electric power consumption (kWh per capita) — 53.17 (2024)
• PM2.5 air pollution, mean annual exposure (micrograms per cubic meter)

Reading data like this

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Questions people ask

What is South Sudan's forest area (% of land area)?

11.33% in 2024, according to the World Bank (World Development Indicators).

How has it changed since 2012?

It is up 0.02 percentage points from 11.31% in 2012. The highest value was 11.33% in 2024 and the lowest 11.31% in 2012.

How does South Sudan rank?

163rd highest of 209 economies with data for 2024.

Is the latest change in forest area (% of land area) unusual for South Sudan?

In 2024, South Sudan's forest area (% of land area) rose 0 percentage points on 2023 (from 11.33% to 11.33%). Across the 11 yearly changes before that (2013 to 2023), the average change was +0 percentage points and a typical year strayed about 0 percentage points from that (the standard deviation). This year's change was 0.2 standard deviations above 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.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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