The chart above shows the proportion of each region that is wooded area. Only three regions have over half their territory covered in wood.
Findings
- The difference between the region with the greatest proportion of wooded area, the Northern EU, and the region with the least, the Midwestern US, is 51.57 percentage points.
- The Northern EU has 3.54 times the wooded area as a proportion of the region that the Midwestern US does.
- The difference between the EU region with the greatest proportion of wooded area, the Northern EU, and the US region with the greatest, the Northeastern US, is 6.44 percentage points.
- The Northern EU has 1.10 times the wooded area as a proportion of the region that the Northeastern US does.
- The difference between the region with the largest absolute value of wooded area, the Western US, and the region with the least, the Northeastern US, is 296,583,000 acres (120,022,900 hectares).
- The Western US has 5.08 times the wooded area that the Northeastern US does.
- The difference between the US region with the largest absolute value of wooded area, the Western US, and the EU region with the largest, the Northern EU, is 235,447,500 acres (95,282,210 hectares).
- The Western US has 2.76 times the wooded area that the Northern EU does.
Caveats
- EU data is from 2010, US data is from 2016.
- EU and US data come from different sources.
- EU data was converted from hectares to acres.
- All figures are rounded to the nearest hundredth.
- The Eastern EU consists of Poland, Czech Republic, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Slovenia, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia.
- The Midwestern US consists of Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Missouri, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota.
- The Northeastern US consists of New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maryland, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Delaware, Maine, Rhode Island, and Vermont.
- The Northern EU consists of Sweden, Denmark, and Finland.
- The Southern EU consists of Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Cyprus, and Malta.
- The Southern US consists of Texas, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Louisiana, South Carolina, Alabama, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi, and West Virginia.
- The Western EU consists of Germany, United Kingdom, France, Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Ireland, and Luxembourg.
- The Western US consists of California, Washington, Colorado, Arizona, Oregon, Utah, Nevada, New Mexico, Hawaii, Idaho, Alaska, Montana, and Wyoming.
Details
The Western US makes up nearly one-third of the total wooded area in the EU and the US accounting for 29.21%. Adding in the Southern US accounts for over half the wooded area in the two superstates at 51.30%.
The Southern EU and the Northern EU each has more wooded area than the Northeastern US has total area. The Southern US has more wooded area than each of the Northeastern US, the Eastern EU, the Southern EU, and the Northern EU have total area. The Western US has more wooded area than each of the Northeastern US, the Western EU, the Eastern EU, the Southern EU, and the Northern EU have total area.
The Southern EU has the state with the least amount of wooded area: Malta with 860 acres (348 hectares). The Western US has the state with the greatest amount of wooded area: Alaska with 128,577,000 acres (52,033,266 hectares).
Northeastern states have the smallest median of wooded area at 3,024,000 acres (1,223,769 hectares). Northern EU states have the largest median of wooded area at 56,881,190 acres (23,019,000 hectares).
Northeastern states have the smallest mean of wooded area at 6,608,364 acres (2,674,310 hectares). Northern EU states have the largest mean of wooded area at 44,609,180 acres (18,052,690 hectares).
The Northeastern US has the smallest range in wooded area among its states ranging from 340,000 acres (138,000 hectares) in Delaware to 18,966,000 acres (7,675,268 hectares) in New York. The Western US has the largest range in wooded area among its states ranging from 1,748,000 acres (707,391 hectares) in Hawaii to 128,577,000 acres (52,033,270 hectares) in Alaska.
As far as coverage goes, the Western US has the smallest range with a low of 15.90% in Nevada to a high of 52.75% in Washington. The Northeastern US has the greatest range in coverage with a low of 27.27% in Delaware to a high of 89.47% in Maine.
Only six states (2 EU, 4 US) have a greater coverage than the Northern EU as a whole (these range from 89.47% wooded area to 74.89%): Maine, New Hampshire, West Virginia, Vermont, Finland, and Sweden. Only 13 states (5 EU, 8 US) have a smaller coverage than the Midwestern US as a whole (these range from 18.42% wooded area to 1.09%): Wyoming, Nevada, Denmark, Illinois, the United Kingdom, Ireland, the Netherlands, Iowa, Kansas, South Dakota, Nebraska, North Dakota, and Malta.
Sources
Eurostat. 2020. "Area of Wooded Land." Accessed September 25, 2020. https://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/show.do?query=BOOKMARK_DS-096393_QID_-37710D6F_UID_-3F171EB0&layout=TIME,C,X,0;GEO,L,Y,0;UNIT,L,Z,0;INDIC_FO,L,Z,1;INDICATORS,C,Z,2;&zSelection=DS-096393INDICATORS,OBS_FLAG;DS-096393UNIT,THS_HA;DS-096393INDIC_FO,FOWL;&rankName1=UNIT_1_2_-1_2&rankName2=INDICATORS_1_2_-1_2&rankName3=INDIC-FO_1_2_-1_2&rankName4=TIME_1_0_0_0&rankName5=GEO_1_2_0_1&sortC=ASC_-1_FIRST&rStp=&cStp=&rDCh=&cDCh=&rDM=true&cDM=true&footnes=false&empty=false&wai=false&time_mode=NONE&time_most_recent=false&lang=EN&cfo=%23%23%23%2C%23%23%23.%23%23%23.
United States Department of Agriculture. 2016. "Forest Inventory and Analysis: Fiscal Year 2016 Business Report." Accessed September 24, 2020. https://www.fs.usda.gov/sites/default/files/fs_media/fs_document/publication-15817-usda-forest-service-fia-annual-report-508.pdf.