Daily Dose / Nov 8, 2026 / The World's Trees

The Half-Felled World

The first ground-truthed census of Earth's trees counted about three trillion. That's roughly half the number that stood before farming began, and in 2024 the tropics lost primary forest faster than in any year on record.

3.04 trillion

trees on Earth, about 422 for every person. The figure comes from 429,775 ground plots combined with satellite imagery. Crowther et al., Nature, 2015

01 · Where they stand

Four in ten trees grow in the tropics

Tropical and subtropical forests hold the biggest share. Boreal forests in the far north are the most densely packed.

43%

24%

22%

11%

Tropical & subtropicallargest share

Borealhighest density

TemperateEurope, N. America, E. Asia

Otherdrylands, etc.

sparse · drylands & grasslanddense · boreal & tropical forest

02 · The long fall

About 46% of trees are gone since civilization began

Researchers estimate the global tree count has dropped by nearly half since humans started clearing land for farming, roughly 12,000 years ago.

3.04 T today

−46%

Standing today: 54%Implied pre-agricultural total ≈ 5.6 trillion (derived from the 46% estimate)

03 · Who holds them

A Canadian's 8,953 trees vs. a Briton's 47

Trees per person, by country. The global average is 422.

Canada8,953

Russia4,461

Australia3,266

Brazil1,494

United States716

World average422

France182

United Kingdom47

04 · The 2024 spike

Tropical primary forest loss nearly doubled in a single year

For two decades the tropics lost about 3–4 million hectares of primary forest a year. In 2024 they lost 6.7 million.

6.7 million hectares is roughly the size of Panama. It works out to 18 soccer fields every minute.

Global tree cover loss, which counts all forests including boreal fires in Canada and Russia, reached a record 30 million hectares, about the size of Italy.

Values: 2019 3.8 · 2020 4.2 · 2021 3.75 · 2022 4.1 · 2023 3.7 · 2024 6.7 Mha (UMD GLAD / WRI)

05 · A new driver

Fire overtook farming as the top cause

For the first time in the 24-year record, fire caused more tropical primary forest loss than agriculture did. Drought made forests more flammable.

Fire's share of loss, recent years' average≈20%

Fire's share of loss, 2024≈50%

Fire's share of Brazil's loss, 202466%

Brazil accounted for 42% of all tropical primary forest loss.

Bolivia's loss rose 200% to 1.5 million hectares, putting it second behind Brazil for the first time.

06 · The stakes

What the clearing costs

Losing trees means losing carbon storage, habitat and rainfall, and once an old-growth forest is gone it takes centuries to come back.

15 bn

trees cut down each year worldwide (Crowther et al., 2015)

3.1 Gt

greenhouse gases released by 2024's tropical primary forest loss (WRI)

4.1 Gt

GHG emitted by tropical fires in 2024, more than 4× all 2023 air travel (WRI)

17 / 20

top primary-forest countries now losing more than when the 2021 Glasgow pledge was signed

Why it matters · What you can do

Keeping old forests standing beats planting new ones

Protecting intact primary forest preserves carbon and species that new plantings take centuries to replace.
Look for deforestation-free certification (e.g. FSC timber, RSPO palm oil) on wood, paper and food.
Beef, soy, palm oil and cocoa are leading commercial drivers of tropical clearing, so where they come from matters.
Check near-real-time forest loss alerts for any region on Global Forest Watch, which is free and public.