Protected terrestrial areas

Slovenia leads global land protection at 40%, while Turkey protects just 0.2% of its territory.

OECDUpdated Dec '25

Summary

Top 5 Conservation Leaders

1Slovenia
40.1 %
2Poland
39.5 %
3Croatia
37.4 %
4Germany
37.3 %
5Slovakia
37.1 %
Dataset Median
21 %

Bottom 5 Conservation Leaders

43Canada
11.4 %
44Switzerland
10.4 %
45South Africa
9.1 %
46Argentina
8.5 %
47Turkey
0.203 %

Gap

200x

200-fold global protection gap exists

Cluster

37.3%

Top 5 countries all protect over 37% of territory within 3 percentage points

Outlier

#11

Brazil ranks 11th globally despite being world's 5th largest country

Data

47 results

1Slovenia40.1 %
2Poland39.5 %
3Croatia37.4 %
4Germany37.3 %
5Slovakia37.1 %
6Luxembourg36.1 %
7Greece34.6 %
8Bulgaria33.2 %
9New Zealand33.2 %
10France31.1 %

Map

Protected terrestrial areas

0.203 %
40.1 %

Insights

Generated automatically using AI

Gap

200x

Protection rates span a massive 200-fold difference from top to bottom globally

Cluster

37.3%

Top 5 countries all protect over 37% of territory within 3 percentage points

Outlier

#11

Brazil ranks 11th globally despite being world's 5th largest country

Trend

9/10

Nine of top 10 protected countries are European nations

Trailing

12.9%

United States protects only 12.9% of territory, ranking 40th globally

Methodology

This dataset is sourced from the OECD through its official SDMX data service.
Rankdat does not alter or model the underlying values — we only clean formats, standardize country names, and reshape the data for visualization.

OECD compiles these indicators from a mix of sources including national statistical offices, international household surveys (such as Gallup World Poll, EU-SILC, ISSP), and harmonised administrative datasets.
Each indicator follows the definitions and structure specified in the OECD’s Data Structure Definition (DSD) for this dataflow.

Because indicators originate from different countries and surveys, collection years, sampling methods, and questionnaire wording may vary. OECD applies harmonisation rules to improve comparability, but differences in national methodology may still affect cross-country comparisons.

Full definitions, data collection notes, and quality documentation are available through the OECD metadata portal linked in the Sources section.

Source