Terrestrial protected areas in China

Protected areas covered 15.6% of the land area of China in 2025.

Measure: Terrestrial protected areas Unit: % of land area Data: 2013 to 2025 Source: World Bank
China, 2025 15.6% % of land area
Change from 2024 0percentage points 2024: 15.6%
World, 2025 16.5% Official aggregate
Median of G20 countries, 2025 15.6% Middle value of 19 countries
Position in 2025 122nd of 213 See the full ranking

Terrestrial protected areas in China over time

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China World ×

% of land area. Source: World Bank, World Development Indicators. Gaps mean no published value; points are not joined across missing years.

Terrestrial protected areas (% of land area), 2013 to 2025
Period ChinaWorld
2025 15.6% 16.5%
2024 15.6% 16.4%
2023 15.6% 16.1%
2022 15.6% 15.9%
2021 15.6% 15.8%
2020 15.6% 15.4%
2019 15.6% 15.1%
2018 15.6% 15.0%
2017 17.1% 15.1%
2016 17.1% 14.9%
2015 17.1% 15.0%
2014 17.1% 15.2%
2013 17.0% 15.0%

A dash means no value was published for that period.

In short

  • That is unchanged from 2024.
  • Since 2015, when it was 17.1%, the figure has changed by −1.5 percentage points.
  • Among the 213 countries with data for 2025, China has the 122nd highest value.
  • The figure for the world in 2025 was 16.5%.

Source and dates

Original producer
UNEP-WCMC and IUCN, World Database on Protected Areas
Distributed by
World Bank, World Development Indicators
Dataset or series code
ER.LND.PTLD.ZS · dataset details · view at source
Observation period
2013 to 2025 for China
Provider update
8 October 2026
Retrieved
9 November 2026
Published here
9 November 2026
Licence
CC BY 4.0 (per series metadata)
Attribution
Source: World Bank, World Development Indicators, original data: UNEP-WCMC and IUCN, World Database on Protected Areas