Skip to content
Nations Inquiry — home

Data for 2021

Tree Cover Loss, 2021

Figures for 2021, as World Resources Institute — Global Forest Watch (data: University of Maryland) published them · stored as published, never rewritten

This is how much tree cover a country lost in a year, in hectares, measured from Landsat satellite images by the University of Maryland and published by Global Forest Watch. It counts every patch where most of the canopy was cleared or died — for farms, logging, mining, roads, fire or storms.

Tree Cover Loss, 2021 covers 210 countries on 2 measures. Russia is highest, at 6,518,851.44; 33 countries share the lowest reading, 0.00. The middle country reads 2,604.62. Against 2020, 181 values changed (77 up, 104 down), the same countries are covered.

Download CSVCite this year
Share

Share this page

Tree Cover Loss · Data for 2021

HighestRussia

6,518,851.44

Lowest33 countries share it

0.00

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

01Values only

The table

Every country and every column of Tree Cover Loss, 2021, as published. The file carries values only, so no position is shown. “=” marks a shared position.

Showing 25 of 210 countries · select a heading to sort

Tree Cover Loss, 2021: every country, as published by World Resources Institute — Global Forest Watch (data: University of Maryland).
RussiaRUSEastern Europe6,518,851.44761,226,509.4
BrazilBRASouth America2,990,028.76519,056,655.7
CanadaCANNorthern America2,524,984.97418,066,874.8
United StatesUSANorthern America2,044,298.83279,375,325.2
DR CongoCODMiddle Africa1,248,060.48199,272,121.1
IndonesiaIDNSouth-eastern Asia841,390.16160,640,822.2
BoliviaBOLSouth America559,588.6764,556,285.1
ChinaCHNEastern Asia536,772.37162,873,594.1
SwedenSWENorthern Europe333,156.9527,883,711.6
LaosLAOSouth-eastern Asia317,562.5919,118,849.5
MyanmarMMRSouth-eastern Asia304,151.4642,863,360.7
AngolaAGOMiddle Africa298,261.6855,276,134.7
MozambiqueMOZEastern Africa278,084.3728,920,531.0
MalaysiaMYSSouth-eastern Asia277,597.3129,444,768.4
ParaguayPRYSouth America276,715.9724,273,208.1
FinlandFINNorthern Europe266,899.1521,627,650.4
ColombiaCOLSouth America265,160.6781,854,357.4
AustraliaAUSAustralia and New Zealand261,044.9642,281,440.1
MadagascarMDGEastern Africa234,879.8217,141,084.1
PeruPERSouth America225,105.7578,063,554.9
GermanyDEUWestern Europe202,277.2012,526,018.4
ArgentinaARGSouth America201,896.3439,069,969.4
ZambiaZMBEastern Africa201,228.1224,075,024.2
VietnamVNMSouth-eastern Asia193,094.0316,550,834.6
MexicoMEXCentral America189,046.4053,168,926.1

02In 2021

At either end

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

Highest

  1. Russia6,518,851.44
  2. Brazil2,990,028.76
  3. Canada2,524,984.97
  4. United States2,044,298.83
  5. DR Congo1,248,060.48

Lowest

  1. Yemenshared0.00
  2. Tuvalushared0.00
  3. Turkmenistanshared0.00
  4. Tajikistanshared0.00
  5. São Tomé and Príncipeshared0.00

Neither end is better. The values describe a shape, not a score. The middle country reads 2,604.62. “Shared” marks a value another country also holds.

Each measure’s ends

  • Tree cover in 2000 (hectares, >30% canopy)

    HighestRussia761,226,509.4

    Lowest9 share it

    Middle country: 1,245,965.5

032020 → 2021

Since 2020

  • +0 / −0countries joined / left
  • 181values changed, of 210 in both
  • 77 · 104rose · fell
  • 29unchanged

Rose most

  • Canada1,195,271.06 → 2,524,984.97+1,329,713.91
  • Russia5,442,086.25 → 6,518,851.44+1,076,765.19
  • Bolivia428,902.86 → 559,588.67+130,685.80
  • China422,361.07 → 536,772.37+114,411.30
  • United States1,966,726.69 → 2,044,298.83+77,572.13

Fell most

  • Australia2,356,517.98 → 261,044.96−2,095,473.03
  • Brazil3,290,644.63 → 2,990,028.76−300,615.87
  • Indonesia961,584.80 → 841,390.16−120,194.64
  • Mexico299,298.45 → 189,046.40−110,252.05
  • Liberia220,121.98 → 129,838.01−90,283.97

Changes in value, not in places: a country’s place also moves when others do.

04Caveats

Read before you use

How values are stored

  • 178 distinct values among 210

    Values are stored exactly as published, to 17 decimals. 33 countries share 0.00. Countries sharing a value share a position too.

  • Nothing missing

    Every one of the 210 countries has every column.

05The files

Download and cite

Licence in full
  • .csv

    For a spreadsheet or code

    210 rows · 11 KB · UTF-8, opens in Excel

    Opens with 11 lines of source notes; the table starts on row 13.

    Download tree-cover-loss-2021-nations-inquiry.csv
  • ↗

    The publisher’s original

    World Resources Institute — Global Forest Watch (data: University of Maryland)’s own file, on its own site.

    v20260407

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

World Resources Institute — Global Forest Watch (data: University of Maryland) (2021). Tree Cover Loss, 2021 [data set], describing 2021. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/tree-cover-loss/2021

0625 held

Other years