Protected areas in New Zealand

Protected areas covered 30.6% of the territory of New Zealand in 2025.

Measure: Terrestrial and marine protected areas Unit: % of total territorial area Data: 2013 to 2025 Source: World Bank
New Zealand, 2025 30.6% % of total territorial area
Change from 2024 0percentage points 2024: 30.6%
World, 2025 17.0% Official aggregate
Median of OECD (38 countries), 2025 20.2% Middle value of 38 countries
Position in 2025 28th of 213 See the full ranking

Protected areas in New Zealand over time

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New Zealand World ×

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

Terrestrial and marine protected areas (% of total territorial area), 2013 to 2025
Period New ZealandWorld
2025 30.6% 17.0%
2024 30.6% 15.3%
2023 30.6% 14.9%
2022 30.6% 14.9%
2021 30.6% 14.7%
2020 30.6% 14.8%
2019 30.6% 14.5%
2018 30.6% 14.1%
2017 30.5% 13.5%
2016 30.5% 13.2%
2015 30.5% 12.1%
2014 30.5% 11.9%
2013 27.9% 11.1%

A dash means no value was published for that period.

In short

  • That is unchanged from 2024.
  • Since 2015, when it was 30.5%, the figure has changed by +0.1 percentage points.
  • Among the 213 countries with data for 2025, New Zealand has the 28th highest value.
  • The figure for the world in 2025 was 17.0%.

More for New Zealand

All statistics for New Zealand

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.PTD.TOTL.ZS · dataset details · view at source
Observation period
2013 to 2025 for New Zealand
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