How Many Trees Are There on Earth?
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Amazingly, they have all been counted using a combination of satellite imagery, AI, and hundreds of thousands of ground-based forest measurements. But is it better to plant more or to protect what we have?
Trees are more than beautiful: They’re vital for animals and the environment. But just how many trees are there on Earth, anyway? Up until now, nobody really knew for sure. So, cutting straight to the chase, the answer is (as near as scientists can estimate), 3.04 trillion trees. Roughly 390 trees for every person on Earth.
For decades, estimates suggested Earth contained only around 400 billion trees because scientists relied primarily on satellite images showing forest cover. The problem is that satellites can reveal where forests exist but not how densely trees grow beneath the canopy. An exception is the European Space Agency’s Biomass - the first satellite of its kind to use a specific radar frequency to “see” through clouds as well as dense foliage.
This, and other, aerial probing satellites, along with hundreds of thousands of field measurements collected from every continent except Antarctica, and the deployment of artificial intelligence, reveals that our planet currently hosts approximately 3.04 trillion trees. Almost eight times higher than previous estimates. The work remains one of the most comprehensive assessments of global tree numbers ever conducted.
The highest tree densities occur in the boreal forests of northern Canada, Alaska, Scandinavia, and Russia, where cold climates support tightly packed conifer forests. However, the largest total number of trees is found in the tropical and subtropical forests of South America, Central Africa, and Southeast Asia. Together, these regions contain more than 40 percent of all the trees on Earth.
Tree-planting campaigns have become one of the world’s most popular climate solutions, but scientists increasingly caution that the answer is more complicated than planting billions of seedlings. Young trees require decades to mature, and many planted forests consist of only one or two species. Such plantations often store less carbon, support fewer animals, and are less resilient to drought, disease, and wildfire than natural forests.
Researchers now emphasize that protecting existing forests generally delivers greater environmental benefits than replacing them later. Mature forests already store enormous amounts of carbon, regulate rainfall, preserve biodiversity, and maintain healthy soils.
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