Protected areas in South Asia

Protected areas covered 4.6% of the territory of South Asia in 2025. The value for 2025 is the highest in the series, which starts in 2013.

Measure: Terrestrial and marine protected areas Unit: % of total territorial area Data: 2013 to 2025 Source: World Bank
South Asia is a group: World Bank region. The value is the aggregate published by World Bank, not an average calculated on this site.
South Asia, 2025 4.6% % of total territorial area
Change from 2024 0percentage points 2024: 4.5%
World, 2025 17.0% Official aggregate

Protected areas in South Asia over time

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South Asia 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 South AsiaWorld
2025 4.6% 17.0%
2024 4.5% 15.3%
2023 4.5% 14.9%
2022 4.4% 14.9%
2021 4.4% 14.7%
2020 3.8% 14.8%
2019 3.8% 14.5%
2018 3.8% 14.1%
2017 3.8% 13.5%
2016 3.7% 13.2%
2015 3.7% 12.1%
2014 3.7% 11.9%
2013 3.8% 11.1%

A dash means no value was published for that period.

In short

  • That is a change of 0 percentage points from 4.5% in 2024.
  • Since 2015, when it was 3.7%, the figure has changed by +0.8 percentage points.
  • The figure for the world in 2025 was 17.0%.

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 South Asia
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