What we count
An estimate of fertile topsoil removed each year by water and wind erosion.
Soil lost to erosion this year
Fertile soil lost to erosion worldwide so far this year, based on FAO's global estimate, and why actual erosion varies greatly by location.
Continuously calculated
WORLDRelated numbers in context
62,054,795land degraded this year
23,642,876,712fossil co₂ emissions this year
38,473,973electronic waste generated this year
What lies behind this number
An estimate of fertile topsoil removed each year by water and wind erosion.
How the source derives it
The FAO Global Soil Partnership summarises global scientific erosion estimates; the value used represents 24 billion tonnes of fertile soil per year.
What one number cannot show
This is a long-term global estimate, not a sum of measurements from every field. Actual rates vary greatly with soil, climate and land management.
Source value
The calculation uses the latest published annual value reported by FAO Global Soil Partnership for long-term global estimate published since 2015.
How the value is used: The running number shows the share corresponding to time elapsed since the start of the calendar year.
Annual value24,000,000,000tonnes
- Period
- long-term global estimate published since 2015
- Status
- published
- Primary data source
- FAO Global Soil Partnership
How the number is calculated
We distribute the latest published annual value evenly across the elapsed share of the calendar year.
Formula used
V(t) = Vyear × elapsed share of the yearAnnual reference value24,000,000,000long-term global estimate published since 2015 · tonnes
Average per day65,709,768even annual distribution
Calculation interval0.1 sContinuously calculated
Source value
FAO Global Soil Partnership reports the annual value used by the calculation for long-term global estimate published since 2015.
Elapsed share
We calculate the share corresponding to time elapsed since the start of the calendar year. The counter restarts at the beginning of a new year.
Smooth display
The result is recalculated on screen every 0.1 seconds.
Where the data comes from
The source value comes from FAO Global Soil Partnership and refers to long-term global estimate published since 2015. It is the latest value published by this source. The FAO Global Soil Partnership summarises global scientific erosion estimates; the value used represents 24 billion tonnes of fertile soil per year.
Latest published and verified source value
- Publisher
- FAO Global Soil Partnership
- Data period
- long-term global estimate published since 2015
- Verified
- 12 August 2026
- Coverage
- Worldwide
- Use
- Even time-based calculation