What is the rate of deforestation in USA?
Elijah King
Updated on February 17, 2026
Deforestation Statistics In The United States
US cities lose 36 million trees annually. Since the 1600s, the US has destroyed 75% of its virgin forests.How much deforestation has occurred in the USA?
From 2001 to 2021, United States lost 44.3Mha of tree cover, equivalent to a 16% decrease in tree cover since 2000, and 17.4Gt of CO₂e emissions.What is the current rate of deforestation?
Between 2015 and 2020, the rate of deforestation was estimated at 10 million hectares per year, down from 16 million hectares per year in the 1990s. The area of primary forest worldwide has decreased by over 80 million hectares since 1990.What is deforestation in the United States?
Deforestation is forest loss through urban sprawl, land clearing for agriculture, wildfire, disease or timber harvest. The United States went through a period of intense deforestation between 1600 and 1900, but the size of its forest areas has been relatively stable for the last hundred years.Are U.S. forests growing or shrinking?
According to the 2020 FRA, the United States and Canada account for 8% and 9%, respectively, of the world's total forest area. In the U.S., total forest area increased by 18 million acres between 1990 and 2020, which averages out to the equivalent of around 1,200 NFL football fields every day.North American Forest Dynamics Dataset
Is deforestation happening in the USA?
From 2001 to 2021, United States lost 44.3Mha of tree cover, equivalent to a 16% decrease in tree cover since 2000, and 17.4Gt of CO₂e emissions.Is the U.S. reforesting?
Across the contiguous U.S., there are over 133 million acres of reforestation opportunity on lands that have historically been forested (Cook-Patton et al., 2020). This massive reforestation opportunity equals around 68 billion trees.Is deforestation an issue in the United States?
Summary of issueUnited States deforestation has caused the destruction of virgin forests by 75% percent since 1600. In 2015, 33.9% of the total land area was under forests, inclduing primary, naturally regenerating and other woodlands.
What is the rate of deforestation in 2021?
Climate change wreaked havoc on northern forestsOutside of the tropics, boreal forests experienced the highest rates of tree cover loss in 2021. While tree cover loss in boreal forests rarely results in permanent deforestation, the rate of loss reached unprecedented levels in 2021, increasing 29% over 2020.