Skip to content
Airleaf

Country comparison

Nigeria vs South Korea

Averaged across every city Airleaf has measured in each country — 57 in Nigeria and 56 in South Korea — 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.

South Korea averages more tree cover — 41.8% against 33.4%.

Nigeria averages cleaner air — AQI 52 against 58.

Tree cover gap
8.5 points
South Korea is ahead.
Air quality gap
6 AQI
Nigeria is cleaner.
Cities behind it
57 vs 56
How much each average rests on.
Nigeria

57 cities measured

South Korea

56 cities measured

Average tree cover

Mean across measured cities, each over the same 2 km radius.

33.4%

41.8%

Average air quality index

US EPA index. Lower is better.

52

58

Cities measured

How much each average rests on.

57

56

Trees standing

Summed across every measured city in each country.

6.0M

7.1M

Cities below their target

Share of measured cities short of the canopy target. Lower is better.

53% (30)

30% (17)

Trees still needed

Summed across measured cities, to reach their canopy targets. Fewer is better.

1.1M

384K

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.

Nigeria

Greenest measured city
Efon-Alaaye83.7% tree cover
Worst air right now
KanoAQI 148

South Korea

Greenest measured city
Geoje82.4% tree cover
Worst air right now
AndongAQI 88

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 — 57 in Nigeria and 56 in South Korea — 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. Nigeria rests on 57 cities against 56, so its average is the steadier of the two. Both firm up as coverage grows.

Frequently asked

Nigeria and South Korea, answered

Which country has more tree cover, Nigeria or South Korea?

South Korea, averaging 41.8% across its measured cities against 33.4% — a gap of 8.5 percentage points.

Which has cleaner air, Nigeria or South Korea?

Nigeria, averaging AQI 52 against 58 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?

57 measured cities in Nigeria and 56 in South Korea. 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.

Build your own

Compare Nigeria with somewhere else

This place

Nigeria