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Data for 2020

Temperature Change on Land, 2020

2020, as FAO’s 2026 release gives it · stored as published, never rewritten

This is how much warmer — or, occasionally, colder — a country's land surface was over a year than its own average for 1951–1980, in degrees Celsius. FAO calculates it for every country from NASA's global surface temperature record, which makes it the plainest country-by-country measure of how far the climate has already moved.

Temperature Change on Land, 2020 covers 191 countries on 2 measures. Russia is highest, at 3.697; Eswatini is lowest, at 0.252. The middle country reads 1.452. Against 2019, 190 values changed (114 up, 76 down), 1 country joined, 2 left.

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Temperature Change on Land · Data for 2020

HighestRussia

3.697

LowestEswatini

0.252

Shaded by value in five groups of equal size, darkest at the highest end.

01Values only

The table

Every country and every column of Temperature Change on Land, 2020, as published. The file carries values only, so no position is shown. “=” marks a shared position.

Showing 25 of 191 countries · select a heading to sort

Temperature Change on Land, 2020: every country, as published by Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
RussiaRUSEastern Europe3.6970.586
EstoniaESTNorthern Europe3.5990.899
LatviaLVANorthern Europe3.5030.883
BelarusBLREastern Europe3.4430.869
LithuaniaLTUNorthern Europe3.3800.889
FinlandFINNorthern Europe3.3190.986
UkraineUKREastern Europe3.0510.795
SwedenSWENorthern Europe2.9490.852
MoldovaMDAEastern Europe2.9330.733
KazakhstanKAZCentral Asia2.8320.801
PolandPOLEastern Europe2.6480.777
DenmarkDNKNorthern Europe2.6360.696
LuxembourgLUXWestern Europe2.6190.601
BelgiumBELWestern Europe2.5500.574
SwitzerlandCHEWestern Europe2.5190.458
GermanyDEUWestern Europe2.5060.613
FranceFRAWestern Europe2.4810.427
AndorraANDSouthern Europe2.4800.417
NetherlandsNLDWestern Europe2.4610.617
LiechtensteinLIEWestern Europe2.3950.466
MongoliaMNGEastern Asia2.3940.602
NorwayNORNorthern Europe2.3930.738
CzechiaCZEEastern Europe2.3460.630
AustriaAUTWestern Europe2.3040.529
MonacoMCOWestern Europe2.2340.338

02In 2020

At either end

The 5 countries at each end of the headline, then the highest and lowest on each other measure.

Highest

  1. Russia3.697
  2. Estonia3.599
  3. Latvia3.503
  4. Belarus3.443
  5. Lithuania3.380

Lowest

  1. Eswatini0.252
  2. Nepal0.295
  3. Botswana0.434
  4. Pakistan0.441
  5. Afghanistan0.483

Neither end is better. The values describe a shape, not a score. The middle country reads 1.452. “Shared” marks a value another country also holds.

Each measure’s ends

  • Standard deviation of the 1951–1980 baseline (°C)

    HighestFinland0.986

    LowestIndonesia0.153

    Middle country: 0.319

032019 → 2020

Since 2019

  • +1 / −2countries joined / left
  • 190values changed, of 190 in both
  • 114 · 76rose · fell
  • 0unchanged

Rose most

Fell most

+ Palau− Cabo Verde− Eritrea

04Caveats

Read before you use

How values are stored

  • One year of the 2026 release

    Every year in this series comes from FAO’s 2026 release, recalculated on one method, so a change from one year to the next is not a revision. It can differ from what was first published for 2020.

  • 181 distinct values among 191

    Values are stored exactly as published, to 3 decimals. 2 countries share 1.857. Countries sharing a value share a position too.

  • Nothing missing

    Every one of the 191 countries has every column.

05The files

Download and cite

Licence in full

What this site changed: Reshaped to one row per country, with its ISO code; no value recalculated, rescaled or rounded. In full

Licence: CC BY 4.0 · what it allows, in plain words

Cite this edition

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) (2020). Temperature Change on Land, 2020 [data set], describing 2020. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/temperature-change/2020

0665 held

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