Did you know that Canadians have more trees to enjoy per person than Russians, or that Brazilians have half as many trees per person than Australians? I hope you enjoy my interactive global map below which shows the number of trees per person per country, right around the world. But first, here are a few headlines.
Canada 8,953 trees per person
Russia 4,461 trees per person
Australia 3,266 trees per person
Brazil 1,494 trees per person
United States 716 trees per person
France 182 trees per person
United Kingdom 47 trees per person
Crowther, T.W. et al. (2015). Mapping tree density at a global scale. Nature, volume, 25, pp.201–205 (10 September 2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature14967
I’ve long been interested in a research paper published a few years ago in Nature, which estimated the total number of trees in the world to be 3,040,000,000,000 (3.04 trillion). What intrigued me more was how the researchers had then mapped the distribution of trees by country across the world, and then calculated the number of trees per capita. I provide a link to the paper below. Meanwhile, I thought it would be fun to create an interactive Google map using their data. So here it is – move your mouse over the map to reveal information:
Some small countries with outlying data have been excluded from the map to improve clarity.
How many trees and woodlands per person in Britain
Since publishing this post I’ve calculated trees and woodlands per person within Britain. Read more
Read More
Crowther, T.W. et al. (2015). Mapping tree density at a global scale. Naturevolume525, pp.201–205 (10 September 2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature14967
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial- NoDerivs 3.0 United States License.
I know that I am LTTP, but that’s not really a fair comparison though. Try growing trees in Siberia, Russia or Alaska, USA or the Australian Outback or the Middle East. Not impossible, but grass is easier to grow and better for the environment. It would be fairer if you included other types of vegetation, like succulents or cacti, which grow in cold and/or dry climates.
According to this Spain has 245 trees per person. But what would the figure be if olive and almond trees were not included?
Good question Graham! I think you’re right that cropped trees (exc plantations) were excluded from these figures by the original authors.
What are the criteria for determining how many trees there are? Are we counting only mature trees or intermediate trees too or is it only harvestable trees?
The count is for all trees based on determinable canopies, regardless of type, purpose, natural vs plantation, and so on. Please refer to quoted paper for full methodology.
WTF, When I scroll over India it shows “Tongad”. Please correct this, otherwise 1.3 billion Indians will be offended (and then drink an additional cup of tea to calm overselves down. Just Kidding.)
That’s wierd Raju – thanks for letting me know. I’ll take a look . . .
Gabriel
What about tree quality? Comparing BC Canada wilderness (5 trees per sq. feet) with UK trees with history (such as King James II Mulberry)?
MAJOR goof in the map: apparently Canada has ceased to exist!
Thanks. I checked and I think there was some sort of error in the Google link with my blog. Now fixed. Answer was 8.963 per person in Canada.