This map shows the number of trees in each country. Click here to view the interactive heat map.Photo: Nature
National NeighboorWoods Month is coming up in October, so now’s the time to plan for your company’s participation or find an event at which to volunteer.
Event sponsors estimate that the trees planted in 2014 have been able to capture 24.5 million gallons of water and dispose of 700 tons of air pollution.
A study published earlier this month in Nature reported there are more than 3 trillion trees in the world. As staggering as that number sounds, researchers estimate it’s about half the number of trees on the planet at the dawn of civilization.
Authors of the Nature article also used their data to estimate how many trees are in each country, rating individual nations’ “tree wealth.” Obviously, countries with more land mass tend to have higher numbers of trees, such as Russia with 642 billion trees.
The United States ranks fourth with 228 billion trees, behind Canada and Brazil.
The study also looked at tree density, assessing the number of trees per square kilometer in a country’s borders. Finland leads on that measure due to its boreal forests. The tropics may have more forests, but they aren’t as dense.
Another metric the scientists considered was number of trees per person in a country. The United States has 716 trees per person while Canada has 8,953. Egypt, on the other hand, is estimated to have only one tree per person.
If you’re interested in registering an event as part of National NeighborWoods Month or finding an event in which to participate, click here.
This map shows the density of trees around the world. Click here to view the interactive heat map.Photo: Nature
