Terrestrial protected areas in New Zealand

Protected areas covered 33.4% of the land area of New Zealand in 2025.

Measure: Terrestrial protected areas Unit: % of land area Data: 2013 to 2025 Source: World Bank
New Zealand, 2025 33.4% % of land area
Change from 2024 0percentage points 2024: 33.4%
World, 2025 16.5% Official aggregate
Median of OECD (38 countries), 2025 21.8% Middle value of 38 countries
Position in 2025 30th of 213 See the full ranking

Terrestrial protected areas in New Zealand over time

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New Zealand 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 New ZealandWorld
2025 33.4% 16.5%
2024 33.4% 16.4%
2023 33.4% 16.1%
2022 33.4% 15.9%
2021 33.4% 15.8%
2020 33.4% 15.4%
2019 32.8% 15.1%
2018 32.8% 15.0%
2017 32.5% 15.1%
2016 32.5% 14.9%
2015 32.5% 15.0%
2014 32.5% 15.2%
2013 27.3% 15.0%

A dash means no value was published for that period.

In short

  • That is unchanged from 2024.
  • Since 2015, when it was 32.5%, the figure has changed by +0.9 percentage points.
  • Among the 213 countries with data for 2025, New Zealand has the 30th highest value.
  • The figure for the world in 2025 was 16.5%.

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.LND.PTLD.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