Forests cover 4.14 billion hectares of the planet, roughly 32 percent of all land area. That works out to about half a hectare of forest per person on Earth. But forests aren’t spread evenly. More than half of the world’s total forest area sits within just five countries: Russia, Brazil, Canada, the United States, and China. The rest is distributed across every continent except Antarctica, shaped by climate, latitude, and proximity to oceans.
The Five Most Forested Countries
Russia holds the largest share of the world’s forests at 20.1 percent of the global total. Brazil follows with 12.2 percent, Canada with 8.6 percent, the United States with 7.6 percent, and China with 5.4 percent. Together, these five countries account for 54 percent of all forests on Earth. The forests within each country vary enormously, from frozen boreal wilderness in Russia and Canada to tropical rainforest in the Amazon basin.
Tropical Forests Near the Equator
Tropical rainforests cluster along the equator and tropical coastlines, generally below 1,000 meters in elevation. They need year-round warmth and heavy rainfall, which is why they dominate three major zones: the Amazon River basin in South America, the Congo River basin in Central Africa, and the islands and peninsulas of Southeast Asia. Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines are largely covered by tropical rainforest climate, as is the east coast of Central America and Madagascar.
These forests hold an extraordinary concentration of life. The Tropical Andes and the Sundaland region of Southeast Asia (covering Borneo, Sumatra, and the Malay Peninsula) each contain around 15,000 plant species found nowhere else. Scientists have identified 36 biodiversity hotspots worldwide, and the original list focused entirely on tropical forest regions because of how much unique life they pack into relatively small areas.
Tropical forests are also where the most dramatic losses are happening. In the Amazon alone during 2024, Brazil accounted for 54.7 percent of deforestation, followed by Bolivia at 27.3 percent, Peru at 8.1 percent, and Colombia at 4.7 percent. The biggest drivers are cattle ranching and soy farming in southeastern Brazil and Bolivia, gold mining in Peru and southern Amazonia, and fire, which caused 95 percent of forest damage in the Amazon in 2024, with Brazil and Bolivia both setting annual fire records.
Boreal Forests Across the Far North
The boreal forest, also called taiga, forms a massive belt across the top of the Northern Hemisphere. It stretches through Alaska and Canada, across Scandinavia and northern Europe, through the entirety of northern Russia, and into northern Japan. This is the largest land biome on Earth.
Russia’s taiga alone spans 5,800 kilometers from the Pacific Ocean to the Ural Mountains, making it the biggest continuous stretch of forest anywhere. These forests are dominated by cold-hardy conifers like spruce, larch, and pine, adapted to long winters and short growing seasons. If you looked at a map of global forest cover, the boreal belt would appear as a nearly unbroken green band wrapping around the Northern Hemisphere between roughly 50 and 70 degrees latitude.
Temperate Forests in Mild Climates
Temperate forests occupy the middle latitudes, where four distinct seasons and moderate temperatures allow a growing season of 140 to 200 days per year. The three main concentrations are in eastern North America, western and central Europe, and northeastern Asia, particularly China, Korea, and Japan.
Within these regions, several distinct forest types exist depending on rainfall patterns and elevation. Moist conifer and evergreen broadleaf forests grow in areas with wet winters and dry summers. Mediterranean forests, found around the Mediterranean Sea and in parts of California, receive less than 100 centimeters of rain per year, concentrated in winter. Temperate coniferous forests with mild winters and heavy rainfall (over 200 centimeters per year) thrive along the Pacific Northwest coast of North America. Temperate broadleaf rainforests, the rarest type, need mild frost-free winters and heavy, evenly distributed rainfall year-round. You’ll find patches of these in New Zealand, southern Chile, and small coastal pockets in other regions.
Mangrove Forests Along Tropical Coasts
Mangroves occupy a different niche entirely. These salt-tolerant forests line tropical and subtropical coastlines, growing in the tidal zone where land meets sea. The largest concentrations are in Latin America, West Africa, South and Southeast Asia, and northern Australia. They protect coastlines from storm surges and erosion, serve as nurseries for fish, and store large amounts of carbon in their waterlogged soils.
Mangrove health varies sharply by region. Forests in eastern Venezuela, northeast Brazil, and western New Guinea have been expanding. But significant declines are happening along exposed coastlines in Central America, the Caribbean, much of Africa, South Asia, and Australia. Myanmar, Nigeria, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan have all seen notable losses, with Pakistan experiencing the steepest decline. Southwest Florida and the Gulf of Guinea in West Africa have seen some of the most severe coastal protection losses from mangrove destruction.
Where Forests Are Growing and Shrinking
The global picture of forest cover is not static. Since 1990, most regions have lost forest area, with two notable exceptions: Europe and Asia. Europe’s forests have been growing slowly but steadily, expanding by about 0.1 percent per year through the 1990s and 2000s before leveling off. Asia shifted from no net change in the 1990s to adding 0.4 percent per year in the 2000s and 0.2 percent in the 2010s.
China is the single biggest driver of that Asian gain, adding an average of 1.9 million hectares of forest per year between 2010 and 2020 through massive government-led tree planting programs. Over the same period, Brazil lost 1.5 million hectares per year, the largest decrease of any country. Oceania, which includes Australia, reversed its trend and began gaining forest cover in the 2010s after decades of decline.
The overall pattern is clear: tropical regions, especially in South America and Africa, continue to lose forests to agriculture and fire, while temperate and some boreal regions are holding steady or slowly recovering. The geography of the world’s forests is being reshaped in real time, with the balance shifting away from the tropics and toward the higher latitudes.