Forest area in South America

12 countries in South America, 2023. Unit: % of land area. World ranking →

First in the ranking
94.4 %
Suriname
Median country
50.9 %
half above, half below
World
31.1 %
World Bank aggregate
Range
10.3 to 94.4
Argentina - Suriname

How to read it

Across 12 countries in South America, the highest value is in Suriname (94.4 %) and the lowest in Argentina (10.3 %).

The median country is at 50.9 %: 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

%

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Ranking of countries

2023
In chart Share of the highest value
1Suriname94.4
2Guyana87.1
3Brazil59.0
4Peru56.1
5Colombia52.8
6Venezuela52.2
7Ecuador49.5
8Bolivia46.3
9Paraguay38.5
10Chile25.0
11Uruguay12.0
12Argentina10.3
World Bank, WDI · AG.LND.FRST.ZS · 2023 · 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.