According to a recent tree mapping study conducted by Thomas Crowther and colleagues from Yale University’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, there are three trillion trees on earth — a number higher than previous estimates. In an interview with the BBC News, the Yale team said that the new estimate represents upwards of 420 trees for every person on the planet.
The study is the first spatially continuous map of forest tree density at a global scale. It reveals that of the three trillion global number of trees, approximately 1.39 trillion exist in tropical and subtropical forests, with 0.74 trillion in boreal regions and 0.61 trillion in temperate regions. The researchers estimate that, based on the projected tree densities, over 15 billion trees are cut down each year, and the global number of trees has fallen by approximately 46% since the start of human civilization.