China, mainland vs Sub-Saharan Africa: Forest land — Carbon stock in living biomass

China, mainland
10,126 million t
in 2025
Sub-Saharan Africa
56,286 million t
in 2025
China, mainland rank
7th
Sub-Saharan Africa rank
8th

Forest land — Carbon stock in living biomass over time

  • China, mainland
  • Sub-Saharan Africa
020.0k40.0k60.0k199020072025

How they compare

Sub-Saharan Africa currently reports 56,286 million t against 10,126 million t in China, mainland, a difference of 46,160 million t.

That makes Sub-Saharan Africa's figure about 5.6 times China, mainland's.

Across all 36 years both countries report, Sub-Saharan Africa has been ahead every year.

China, mainland ranks 7th and Sub-Saharan Africa ranks 8th of 215 countries.

Sub-Saharan Africa has averaged higher in every one of the 4 decades both report.

Head to head by decade

Decade China, mainland Sub-Saharan Africa Difference Ahead
1990s 5,428 million t 63,643 million t 58,216 million t Sub-Saharan Africa
2000s 6,364 million t 61,005 million t 54,641 million t Sub-Saharan Africa
2010s 7,774 million t 58,466 million t 50,692 million t Sub-Saharan Africa
2020s 9,554 million t 56,630 million t 47,076 million t Sub-Saharan Africa

Averages of every year both report within each decade.

Frequently asked questions

Which has higher forest land — carbon stock in living biomass, China, mainland or Sub-Saharan Africa?
Sub-Saharan Africa, at 56,286 million t against 10,126 million t in China, mainland as of 2025.
What is the difference in forest land — carbon stock in living biomass between China, mainland and Sub-Saharan Africa?
46,160 million t, with Sub-Saharan Africa ahead.
How many years of comparable data are there for China, mainland and Sub-Saharan Africa?
36 years are reported by both, from 1990 to 2025.
How do China, mainland and Sub-Saharan Africa rank globally for forest land — carbon stock in living biomass?
China, mainland ranks 7th and Sub-Saharan Africa ranks 8th of 215 countries.
Where does this data come from?
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, published as Forest land — Carbon stock in living biomass. Statizoid refreshes it automatically from the source and publishes the full history for both places.

Individual pages

Share, cite or embed this page

Cite this page

China, mainland vs Sub-Saharan Africa: Forest land — Carbon stock in living biomass. Statizoid, drawing on Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Retrieved 12 September 2026, from https://climate.statizoid.com/compare/forest-land-carbon-stock-in-living-biomass/china-mainland/sub-saharan-africa/

Embed or link this data

Paste this into a page to link back to these figures. The data itself is free to reuse under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO (FAO); please keep the attribution.

<a href="https://climate.statizoid.com/compare/forest-land-carbon-stock-in-living-biomass/china-mainland/sub-saharan-africa/">China, mainland vs Sub-Saharan Africa: Forest land — Carbon stock in living biomass</a> — Statizoid

About this data

Indicator
Forest land — Carbon stock in living biomass
Unit
million t
Source
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Licence
CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO (FAO)
Coverage
267 places, 9,484 data points, 1961–2025
Last refreshed

The FAOSTAT Land Use domain contains data on twenty-one land use categories and twenty-three categories of irrigation and agricultural practices. Data are available yearly and by country, regional and global levels. The domain includes Land Use Indicators providing information on the percentage share of agricultural and forest land, and their sub-components, including irrigated areas and areas under organic agriculture, within a country land use matrix. Data are available at country, regional and global level, for the following elements: (in percentage) i) Share in Land area; ii) Share in Agricultural land, iii) Share in Cropland; and iv) Share in Forest land; (in ha/pc) v) Area per capita.