Russia has the world's largest forest area at 8.15 million square kilometres, followed by Brazil (4.94 million) and Canada (3.47 million), according to FAO data for 2022.
Russia has the largest forest area of any country, at 8,153,116 km² in 2022, covering 49.8% of its land. Brazil is second at 4,941,960 km² and Canada third at 3,468,541 km². The ranking uses forest area in square kilometres for 2022 from FAO land-use statistics, as tabulated in Wikipedia's List of countries by forest area.
Forests cover about 31% of the world's land — 30.6% in the FAO's 2022 land-use data — but they are concentrated in a handful of very large countries. Russia alone holds more forest than Canada and the United States combined. This list ranks the ten countries with the most forest, in square kilometres, using one dataset and one year: the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) land-use statistics for 2022, as tabulated in Wikipedia's List of countries by forest area. The ranking reflects forest extent only — not forest quality, biodiversity or conservation status.
Russia has the world's largest forest area, 8,153,116 square kilometres in 2022 — 49.8% of its land. Most of it is the boreal forest (taiga) of Siberia and the Russian Far East, dominated by larch, pine and spruce.
Brazil has 4,941,960 square kilometres of forest, covering 59.1% of its land — the highest share among the top ten. Most of it is Amazon rainforest, the world's largest tropical rainforest, much of which lies in Brazil.
Canada's 3,468,541 square kilometres of forest cover 39.5% of its land, much of it boreal forest across the country's northern reaches.
The United States has 3,097,950 square kilometres of forest, 33.9% of its land. Its forests range from the temperate rainforests of the Pacific Northwest to the pine forests of the Southeast, the hardwoods of New England and the boreal forests of Alaska.
China has 2,237,373 square kilometres of forest, 23.8% of its land, after decades of large-scale tree-planting programmes. Its forests are mostly temperate in the north and subtropical in the south.
Australia has 1,340,051 square kilometres of forest, 17.4% of its land. Most are eucalypt forests adapted to a dry, fire-prone climate, alongside tropical rainforest such as Queensland's Daintree.
The DRC has 1,239,525 square kilometres of forest, 54.7% of its land — the largest forest area in Africa. Most of it lies in the Congo Basin, the world's second-largest tropical rainforest after the Amazon.
Indonesia has 909,221 square kilometres of forest, 48.0% of its land, spread across Sumatra, Borneo (shared with Malaysia and Brunei), Sulawesi and Papua. Its tropical rainforests are among the most biodiverse on Earth.
India has 726,928 square kilometres of forest, 24.4% of its land, ranging from tropical rainforest in the Western Ghats and the northeast to dry deciduous forest in central India and alpine forest in the Himalayas.
Peru has 719,847 square kilometres of forest, 56.2% of its land — just behind India in total area. Most of it is Amazon rainforest in the east of the country, with cloud forests on the Andean slopes.
| # | Name | region | percent_of_country_land_area | primary_forest_type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Russia | Europe / Asia | 49.8% | Boreal (taiga) |
| 2 | Brazil | South America | 59.1% | Tropical rainforest |
| 3 | Canada | North America | 39.5% | Boreal |
| 4 | United States | North America | 33.9% | Temperate mixed |
| 5 | China | Asia | 23.8% | Temperate / subtropical |
| 6 | Australia | Oceania | 17.4% | Eucalypt / sclerophyll |
| 7 | Democratic Republic of the Congo | Africa | 54.7% | Tropical rainforest |
| 8 | Indonesia | Southeast Asia | 48.0% | Tropical rainforest |
| 9 | India | Asia | 24.4% | Tropical / subtropical diverse |
| 10 | Peru | South America | 56.2% | Tropical rainforest / cloud forest |
Countries are ranked by forest area in square kilometres for the year 2022, from FAO (FAOSTAT Land Use) data as tabulated in Wikipedia's 'List of countries by forest area' (accessed 18 October 2026). The share of land area is from the same table. All figures are for one year from one source; figures for other years or editions (FAO Global Forest Resources Assessment 2020 or 2025, World Bank indicator AG.LND.FRST.K2) differ slightly and are not mixed in. FAO defines forest as land spanning more than 0.5 hectares with trees taller than 5 metres and a canopy cover of more than 10%, excluding land predominantly under agricultural or urban use. Only sovereign states are ranked. Rank 1 is the largest forest area.
The FAO defines forest as land spanning more than 0.5 hectares with trees higher than 5 metres and a canopy cover of more than 10%, or trees able to reach those thresholds. It excludes land that is predominantly under agricultural or urban use, such as orchards and tree-crop plantations.
Among the top ten by total area, Brazil has the highest share, at 59.1% of its land. Among all sovereign states in the same 2022 FAO table, Suriname is highest at 94.5%; the French overseas region of French Guiana is higher still at 96.6%.
The FAO publishes forest area in several products — the five-yearly Global Forest Resources Assessment (2020, 2025) and the annual FAOSTAT land-use series, which the World Bank republishes — and each edition revises earlier years. This list uses a single series and year (FAOSTAT, 2022) so that every country is measured the same way.
In the 2022 FAO data, India (726,928 km²) has slightly more forest than Peru (719,847 km²), so India ranks ninth and Peru tenth. The gap is small enough that other years or editions can reverse the order.
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