Country comparison
Ethiopia vs Iraq
Averaged across every city Airleaf has measured in each country — 30 in Ethiopia and 49 in Iraq — each read the same way: Sentinel-2 imagery at 10 m detail over a 2 km radius, and the live US EPA air quality index.
Ethiopia averages more tree cover — 36.3% against 6.5%.
Ethiopia averages cleaner air — AQI 72 against 78.
- Tree cover gap
- 29.8 points
- Ethiopia is ahead.
- Air quality gap
- 6 AQI
- Ethiopia is cleaner.
- Cities behind it
- 30 vs 49
- How much each average rests on.
Average tree cover
Mean across measured cities, each over the same 2 km radius.
36.3%
6.5%
Average air quality index
US EPA index. Lower is better.
72
78
Cities measured
How much each average rests on.
30
49
Trees standing
Summed across every measured city in each country.
3.3M
979K
Cities below their target
Share of measured cities short of the canopy target. Lower is better.
37% (11)
100% (49)
Trees still needed
Summed across measured cities, to reach their canopy targets. Fewer is better.
498K
3.7M
Behind the averages
The extremes in each country
An average says nothing about how far apart the best and worst places are. These are the measured cities at each end.
Ethiopia
- Greenest measured city
- Debre Tabor66.7% tree cover
- Worst air right now
- SodoAQI 134
Reading these numbers
What a country average is, and is not
It is a mean of cities
Not a national statistic. Each figure is the average across the cities Airleaf has measured in that country — 30 in Ethiopia and 49 in Iraq — each read over the same 2 km radius. Rural land, forest and everywhere unmeasured are not in it, so this compares urban areas rather than territories.
Coverage shapes the number
A country measured mostly in its capital reads differently from one measured across dozens of towns. Iraq rests on 49 cities against 30, so its average is the steadier of the two. Both firm up as coverage grows.
Frequently asked
Ethiopia and Iraq, answered
Which country has more tree cover, Ethiopia or Iraq?
Ethiopia, averaging 36.3% across its measured cities against 6.5% — a gap of 29.8 percentage points.
Which has cleaner air, Ethiopia or Iraq?
Ethiopia, averaging AQI 72 against 78 on the US EPA index. These are live readings averaged across cities, so the gap moves with the weather.
How many cities is each figure based on?
30 measured cities in Ethiopia and 49 in Iraq. Every one was read the same way, so the two averages are directly comparable — but a country with more measured cities has the more settled figure.
Is this the whole country?
No. It is the cities Airleaf has measured, each over a 2 km radius from its centre. Forest, farmland and unmeasured towns are not included, so treat this as a comparison of urban tree cover and urban air rather than of national land cover.
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