Rural land area (sq. km) - Country Ranking

Definition: Rural land area in square kilometers, derived from urban extent grids which distinguish urban and rural areas based on a combination of population counts (persons), settlement points, and the presence of Nighttime Lights. Areas are defined as urban where contiguous lighted cells from the Nighttime Lights or approximated urban extents based on buffered settlement points for which the total population is greater than 5,000 persons.

Source: Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN)/Columbia University. 2013. Urban-Rural Population and Land Area Estimates Version 2. Palisades, NY: NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC). http://sedac.ciesin.columbia.e

See also: Thematic map, Time series comparison

Find indicator:
Rank Country Value Year
1 Russia 16,305,830.00 2010
2 Canada 9,084,045.00 2010
3 China 8,868,577.00 2010
4 United States 8,549,546.00 2010
5 Brazil 8,241,430.00 2010
6 Australia 7,641,565.00 2010
7 India 2,980,489.00 2010
8 Argentina 2,690,270.00 2010
9 Sudan 2,489,484.00 2010
10 Algeria 2,285,676.00 2010
11 Dem. Rep. Congo 2,278,812.00 2010
12 Saudi Arabia 1,912,312.00 2010
13 Indonesia 1,838,683.00 2010
14 Mexico 1,831,424.00 2010
15 Libya 1,606,875.00 2010
16 Iran 1,545,056.00 2010
17 Peru 1,256,340.00 2010
18 Angola 1,248,199.00 2010
19 Mali 1,243,208.00 2010
20 Ethiopia 1,117,893.00 2010
21 Colombia 1,090,598.00 2010
22 Mauritania 1,041,102.00 2010
23 Egypt 951,268.90 2010
24 Tanzania 886,549.60 2010
25 Nigeria 880,103.30 2010
26 Venezuela 868,222.80 2010
27 Namibia 822,303.10 2010
28 Mozambique 769,595.10 2010
29 Pakistan 751,709.50 2010
30 Turkey 723,511.50 2010
31 Chile 709,418.80 2010
32 Morocco 659,759.40 2010
33 Myanmar 657,996.30 2010
34 Somalia 634,302.60 2010
35 Madagascar 587,832.90 2010
36 Kenya 576,333.80 2010
37 Ukraine 553,950.90 2010
38 Thailand 474,183.40 2010
39 Papua New Guinea 459,445.50 2010
40 Cameroon 459,153.20 2010
41 France 457,993.60 2010
42 Spain 432,138.30 2010
43 Iraq 415,377.70 2010
44 Yemen 411,287.60 2010
45 Sweden 390,507.30 2010
46 Congo 338,427.10 2010
47 Vietnam 318,130.10 2010
48 Côte d'Ivoire 314,812.30 2010
49 Malaysia 312,833.00 2010
50 Oman 307,667.50 2010
51 Norway 292,187.80 2010
52 Germany 291,859.20 2010
53 Finland 289,666.30 2010
54 Philippines 282,759.10 2010
55 Poland 277,840.50 2010
56 Gabon 261,381.80 2010
57 Japan 260,649.60 2010
58 New Zealand 253,834.70 2010
59 Ecuador 244,458.20 2010
60 Guinea 243,431.20 2010
61 Greenland 242,639.60 2010
62 Lao PDR 227,855.50 2010
63 Ghana 224,697.50 2010
64 Italy 223,236.40 2010
65 Romania 219,047.90 2010
66 Guyana 207,343.40 2010
67 Belarus 198,055.80 2010
68 Senegal 193,255.50 2010
69 United Kingdom 183,648.90 2010
70 Cambodia 176,298.20 2010
71 Syrian Arab Republic 173,463.20 2010
72 Uruguay 168,731.90 2010
73 Tunisia 144,635.90 2010
74 Suriname 139,976.20 2010
75 Bangladesh 123,889.60 2010
76 Eritrea 122,239.80 2010
77 Dem. People's Rep. Korea 119,243.40 2010
78 Nicaragua 115,694.30 2010
79 Benin 113,917.00 2010
80 Greece 112,653.60 2010
81 Honduras 108,150.60 2010
82 Bulgaria 103,838.00 2010
83 Guatemala 103,568.30 2010
84 Cuba 100,440.80 2010
85 Liberia 95,634.38 2010
86 Malawi 92,909.46 2010
87 Iceland 88,593.22 2010
88 Jordan 86,229.24 2010
89 Portugal 78,286.85 2010
90 Korea 77,155.29 2010
91 Panama 71,714.31 2010
92 Sierra Leone 71,494.84 2010
93 United Arab Emirates 70,575.11 2010
94 Georgia 64,912.71 2010
95 Ireland 63,249.21 2010
96 Sri Lanka 61,106.81 2010
97 Latvia 60,137.24 2010
98 Lithuania 59,360.14 2010
99 Togo 55,426.64 2010
100 South Africa 53,460.31 2010
101 Croatia 51,019.57 2010
102 Bosnia and Herzegovina 49,338.42 2010
103 Costa Rica 46,479.98 2010
104 Dominican Republic 42,784.18 2010
105 Estonia 40,498.62 2010
106 Guinea-Bissau 33,629.70 2010
107 Denmark 33,044.12 2010
108 Moldova 31,217.15 2010
109 Switzerland 30,190.08 2010
110 Solomon Islands 28,264.58 2010
111 Equatorial Guinea 26,800.92 2010
112 Albania 26,686.71 2010
113 Haiti 26,163.42 2010
114 North Macedonia 21,962.62 2010
115 Netherlands 21,411.86 2010
116 Djibouti 21,411.55 2010
117 Belize 21,296.04 2010
118 New Caledonia 18,564.04 2010
119 Belgium 18,091.89 2010
120 Slovenia 17,680.89 2010
121 Fiji 17,199.44 2010
122 Eswatini 16,551.39 2010
123 El Salvador 16,349.95 2010
124 Israel 15,621.78 2010
125 Timor-Leste 14,569.64 2010
126 Kuwait 13,422.94 2010
127 The Bahamas 12,245.52 2010
128 Vanuatu 12,210.13 2010
129 The Gambia 10,461.87 2010
130 Qatar 9,779.25 2010
131 Lebanon 8,082.00 2010
132 Jamaica 8,015.42 2010
133 Cyprus 6,949.83 2010
134 Brunei 4,743.62 2010
135 Cabo Verde 3,913.57 2010
136 Trinidad and Tobago 2,879.29 2010
137 Samoa 2,748.28 2010
138 Luxembourg 1,782.77 2010
139 Comoros 1,478.79 2010
140 Kiribati 985.04 2010
141 São Tomé and Principe 933.32 2010
142 Mauritius 727.65 2010
143 Tonga 552.35 2010
144 Dominica 503.71 2010
145 Puerto Rico 459.92 2010
146 Palau 448.27 2010
147 St. Vincent and the Grenadines 322.59 2010
148 St. Lucia 263.58 2010
149 Hong Kong SAR, China 231.17 2010
150 Seychelles 187.97 2010
151 Antigua and Barbuda 167.86 2010
152 Grenada 153.51 2010
153 Bahrain 115.14 2010
154 Singapore 103.60 2010
155 Cayman Islands 64.62 2010
156 Tuvalu 38.76 2010
157 St. Kitts and Nevis 36.29 2010
158 Malta 30.63 2010
159 Barbados 14.81 2010
160 Macao SAR, China 11.18 2010
161 Nauru 10.05 2010
162 San Marino 3.74 2010
163 Monaco 0.48 2010

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Limitations and Exceptions: The 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) assessment report concluded that global warming is “unequivocal” and gave the strongest warning yet about the role of human activities. The report estimated that sea levels would rise approximately 49 centimeters over the next 100 years, with a range of uncertainty of 20–86 centimeters. That will lead to increased coastal flooding through direct inundation and a higher base for storm surges, allowing flooding of larger areas and higher elevations. Climate model simulations predict an increase in average surface air temperature of about 2.5°C by 2100 (Kattenberg and others 1996) and increase of “killer” heat waves during the warm season (Karl and others 1997).

Statistical Concept and Methodology: The Global Rural-Urban Mapping Project, Version 1 (GRUMPv1) urban extent grid distinguishes urban and rural areas based on a combination of population counts (persons), settlement points, and the presence of Nighttime Lights . Areas are defined as urban where contiguous lighted cells from the Nighttime Lights or approximated urban extents based on buffered settlement points for which the total population is greater than 5,000 persons. This dataset is produced by the Columbia University Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) in collaboration with the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), The World Bank, and Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT)

Aggregation method: Sum

Periodicity: Annual