Protected land area
Land in Natura 2000 sites or in areas protected under national law, as a percentage of the country's land area at the end of the year. Areas covered by both designations are counted once.
Calculated by the European Environment Agency from the sites Member States report. France covers metropolitan France only and Cyprus the government-controlled area. Large one-year rises usually follow a new batch of designations, such as Croatia's Natura 2000 network on joining the EU in 2013. The EU biodiversity strategy aims for 30% by 2030.
Key facts
- Protected land area in the European Union (27) was 26.4% in 2023, according to Eurostat, European Commission.
- Bulgaria had the highest protected land area of 27 EU countries in 2023, at 44.2%, and Finland the lowest, at 13.4%. Source: Eurostat, European Commission.
- Published for 28 places, with figures from 2011 to 2023.
Rankings
EU countries by protected land area, 2023
Places with data
World, EU and euro area
Countries
- Germany
- France
- Italy
- Spain
- Poland
- Romania
- Netherlands
- Belgium
- Czechia
- Portugal
- Hungary
- Malta
- Estonia
- Croatia
- Cyprus
- Greece
Use this data in your AI agent
Invokely serves this figure to AI assistants through MCP and to code through a REST API, with the source and citation attached. Ask your assistant:
Which places have the highest protected land area? Use official data and cite it.
rank_places {"indicator":"terrestrial_protected_area_share","level":"country","within":"European Union (27)"}
GET https://invokely.ai/api/v1/rank?indicator=terrestrial_protected_area_share&level=country&within=European%20Union%20(27)