List of countries by forest area

This is a list of countries and territories of the world according to the total area covered by forests, based on data published by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

This area is equivalent to 0.52 ha per person[2] – although forests are not distributed equally among the world's people or geographically.

More than half (54 percent) of the world's forests is in only five countries – the Russian Federation (20.1%), Brazil (12.2%), Canada (8.6%), the United States of America (7.6%) and China (5.4%).

Their capacity to provide tangible goods, such as fiber, food, and medicines, as well as essential ecological services, including habitat for biodiversity, carbon storage, and moderation of freshwater flows, is under greater threat than ever before.

[6] This article incorporates text from "Global Forest Resources Assessment 2020 Key findings" (PDF).