Countries by Terrestrial protected areas (% of total land area)
Seychelles leads all 213 countries in terrestrial protected areas, with 68.1% of its total land area under protection. At the other end, Eritrea, Micronesia, Nauru, and Somalia record 0%, leaving the full range at 68.1 percentage points. That gap reflects widely divergent national approaches to designating and reporting protected land.
Ranking 2024
Values shown in %.
Analysis
This metric measures the share of a country's total land area covered by terrestrial protected areas, expressed as a percentage. According to the World Bank World Development Indicators (indicator ER.LND.PTLD.ZS, data year 2024), terrestrial protected areas are totally or partially protected areas of at least 1,000 hectares that are designated by national authorities as scientific reserves with limited public access, national parks, natural monuments, nature reserves or wildlife sanctuaries, protected landscapes, and areas managed mainly for sustainable use. Marine areas, unclassified areas, littoral (intertidal) areas are excluded from this measure. The dataset covers 213 countries, with 100% of data points rated official quality and all 213 countries reporting data from within the last seven years. Eighteen extreme outliers were identified using a 3-standard-deviation threshold.
The top of the ranking is dominated by small island territories and a mix of European and African nations. Seychelles ranks first at 68.1%, followed by New Caledonia at 59.6% and Venezuela at 56.8%. Bhutan ranks 4th at 51.6%, and Liechtenstein 5th at 44.8%. Several European Union members rank notably high: Bulgaria is 6th at 44.3%, Slovenia 11th at 40.5%, and Poland 16th at 39.6%. In sub-Saharan Africa, Zambia ranks 10th at 41.3%, Tanzania 12th at 40.0%, and Namibia ties for 13th at 39.9%. These high values reflect either large formally designated national park systems or a high proportion of nationally protected landscape categories relative to total land area.
In the middle ranges, many large economies appear well below their global profile might suggest. The United States ranks 139th at 12.9%, sharing that position with Canada. China ranks 119th at 15.6%, and India ranks 169th at just 7.7%. Russia ranks 146th at 11.5% despite its vast territory. Some counterintuitive placements appear at the bottom: Singapore ranks 181st at 4.6%, while wealthy Gulf states such as Bahrain rank 145th at 11.7% and Kuwait ranks 104th at 17.1%. Four countries — Eritrea, Micronesia, Nauru, and Somalia — report exactly 0%, occupying ranks 210 through 213.
Several limitations apply to this metric. The definition requires a minimum area of 1,000 hectares, meaning smaller reserves in small or densely populated countries may not be counted, which can systematically understate protection levels for microstate and island territories. The metric captures designated area only, not management effectiveness or ecological condition within those boundaries. Countries differ in how they classify and report protected categories to international databases, which can create inconsistencies across borders. Territories and dependent areas are included alongside sovereign states, which affects comparability. The 18 extreme outliers flagged at the 3-standard-deviation threshold indicate that a small number of values are statistically distant from the global distribution and should be interpreted with caution.
Methodology
Data source: World Bank World Development Indicators, indicator code ER.LND.PTLD.ZS, data year 2024. The metric measures terrestrial protected areas as a percentage of total land area. Per the source definition, terrestrial protected areas are totally or partially protected areas of at least 1,000 hectares that are designated by national authorities as scientific reserves with limited public access, national parks, natural monuments, nature reserves or wildlife sanctuaries, protected landscapes, and areas managed mainly for sustainable use. Marine areas, unclassified areas, littoral (intertidal) areas are excluded. The ranking covers 213 countries. All 213 countries (100%) have data from within the last seven years, and 100% of data points are classified as official quality, both exceeding the required thresholds of 80-country coverage and 70% official quality. The value range runs from 0.00% to 68.10%, a spread of over 999%. Eighteen extreme outliers were detected using a 3-standard-deviation threshold. Average year-over-year change is 17.4%, below the 50% volatility threshold, indicating generally stable reporting.