Forest area in South America

12 countries in South America, 2024. Unit: % of land area. World ranking →

First in the ranking
91.5 %
Median country
51.4 %
half above, half below
Range
11.5 to 91.5
Uruguay - Suriname

How to read it

Across 12 countries in South America, the highest value is in Suriname (91.5 %) and the lowest in Uruguay (11.5 %).

The median country is at 51.4 %: half are above, half below.

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.

Compare selected countries · on the world map

Source: FAOSTAT, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), uri: https://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/RL, publisher: Food and Agriculture… · via World Bank WDI (AG.LND.FRST.ZS) · licence

Forest area over time

%

Add to chart:

Ranking of countries

2024
In chart Share of the highest value
1Suriname91.5
2Guyana87.1
3Brazil58.5
4Colombia53.7
5Venezuela53.4
6Peru52.7
7Bolivia50.2
8Ecuador49.7
9Paraguay36.5
10Chile24.5
11Argentina17.1
12Uruguay11.5
World Bank, WDI · AG.LND.FRST.ZS · 2024 · CC BY 4.0 Source and licence

Tick a country in the table to add it to the chart above, up to six at a time. The ranking uses the latest year for which at least half of the countries have a value; countries without a value that year are not listed.