Terrestrial protected areas in Euro area

Protected areas covered 27.5% of the land area of the euro area in 2025. The value for 2025 is the highest in the series, which starts in 2013.

Measure: Terrestrial protected areas Unit: % of land area Data: 2013 to 2025 Source: World Bank
Euro area is a group: Euro area; membership follows each source definition (World Bank EMU, ECB U2 changing composition). The value is the aggregate published by World Bank, not an average calculated on this site.
Euro area, 2025 27.5% % of land area
Change from 2024 +0.1percentage points 2024: 27.5%
World, 2025 16.5% Official aggregate

Terrestrial protected areas in Euro area over time

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Euro area 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 Euro areaWorld
2025 27.5% 16.5%
2024 27.5% 16.4%
2023 27.0% 16.1%
2022 27.0% 15.9%
2021 26.9% 15.8%
2020 26.8% 15.4%
2019 26.7% 15.1%
2018 26.5% 15.0%
2017 26.4% 15.1%
2016 26.4% 14.9%
2015 26.5% 15.0%
2014 26.5% 15.2%
2013 26.5% 15.0%

A dash means no value was published for that period.

In short

  • That is a change of +0.1 percentage points from 27.5% in 2024.
  • Since 2015, when it was 26.5%, the figure has changed by +1.0 percentage points.
  • 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 Euro area
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