Ecological Footprint of Nations (2D)

Compare a country

If everyone lived like this

1.7

Earths needed

Ecological footprint

2.7 gha / person

Own biocapacity

1.6 gha / person

Country Overshoot Day

4 Aug

Day humanity would exhaust a year's biocapacity if everyone consumed like this

How it works

Ecological Footprint measures how much biologically productive land and sea a population needs to produce what it consumes and absorb its waste — mostly carbon emissions, usually the largest single slice. Biocapacity is how much productive land Earth actually has. When a country's footprint exceeds the planet's biocapacity share, the gap is filled by importing resources or drawing down shared global stocks — an ecological deficit.

Earths needed = country footprint per person ÷ world biocapacity per person (≈1.6 global hectares/person) — the real Global Footprint Network metric.
Country Overshoot Day = the calendar day by which humanity would use up a full year of biocapacity if everyone on Earth consumed like this country's average resident.
World Overshoot Day has drifted from late December in 1970 to early August today — humanity now spends roughly five months a year in ecological deficit.

Real-world relevance: this accounting (Global Footprint Network, since 1990s) underlies national sustainability policy, trade debates about "embedded" resource use, and the annual Earth Overshoot Day campaign.

Overshoot day4 Aug

Biocapacity (available) Footprint (consumed) Extra Earths needed