Terrestrial protected areas by country, 2025, European Union (27 countries)
Protected land areas such as national parks and nature reserves, as a share of total land area. Marine areas are excluded.
27 places ranked for 2025. Highest: Bulgaria (44.3%). Lowest: Finland (13.9%). The median is 24.6%.
Members since the United Kingdom left the EU on 31 January 2020. About this group
Highest 10
Lowest 10
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Source: World Bank, World Development Indicators.
Full ranking
| # | Country | Value | Period | Relative size |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bulgaria | 44.3% | 2025 | |
| 2 | Slovenia | 40.4% | 2025 | |
| 3 | Poland | 39.6% | 2025 | |
| 4 | Germany | 39.2% | 2025 | |
| 5 | Luxembourg | 39.1% | 2025 | |
| 6 | Cyprus | 38.6% | 2025 | |
| 7 | Croatia | 38.4% | 2025 | |
| 8 | Slovakia | 37.5% | 2025 | |
| 9 | Greece | 35.0% | 2025 | |
| 10 | Austria | 29.6% | 2025 | |
| 11 | Malta | 29.0% | 2025 | |
| 12 | France | 28.8% | 2025 | |
| 13 | Spain | 28.1% | 2025 | |
| 14 | Romania | 24.6% | 2025 | |
| 15 | Portugal | 23.0% | 2025 | |
| 16 | Netherlands | 22.9% | 2025 | |
| 17 | Hungary | 22.3% | 2025 | |
| 18 | Czechia | 21.9% | 2025 | |
| 19 | Estonia | 21.6% | 2025 | |
| 20 | Italy | 21.5% | 2025 | |
| 21 | Latvia | 18.8% | 2025 | |
| 22 | Lithuania | 18.0% | 2025 | |
| 23 | Belgium | 16.4% | 2025 | |
| 24 | Denmark | 16.4% | 2025 | |
| 25 | Sweden | 15.8% | 2025 | |
| 26 | Ireland | 14.2% | 2025 | |
| 27 | Finland | 13.9% | 2025 |
Places are ordered from the highest to the lowest value. Group medians on this site are the middle value of the members with data for the same year; they are not official aggregates.
How this ranking works
Every country is ranked on its value for 2025, the latest period that most countries have, so all values are for the same point in time. Countries without a value for 2025 are left out. Groups and aggregates such as the European Union are not ranked. Values are as published by World Bank; the ranking is a plain ordering from the highest to the lowest value and says nothing about whether a high value is good or bad.
Earlier years: use the year selector above. Methodology · Coverage and freshness