Biodiversity by Country: A Global Analysis

Threat is geographically concentrated: the top ten countries carry roughly 44% of the world's at-risk species. This pillar gives the global ranking, the per-country dashboards, and the analytical posts that go deeper.

Countries with dashboards
278
Most threatened country
Madagascar
3,987 species
Top 10 share of global threat
44%
of 55,738 threatened
Total country-species links
>500,000

Where the world's threat is concentrated

Of the world's 55,738 threatened species, roughly 44% are found in just ten countries. The pattern reflects a mix of underlying biodiversity (more species means more candidates), accelerated habitat conversion, and island endemism. Below is the live ranking from the SpeciesRadar database, ordered by total CR + EN + VU species whose range overlaps each country.

RankCountryThreatenedCritically Endangered
1Madagascar3,987717
2Mexico2,656524
3Indonesia2,607473
4United States2,542699
5Colombia2,338514
6China2,130404
7Malaya2,075329
8England (SE-England); Denmark; Netherlands; Belgium; Germany (Baden-Württemberg [I], Hessen [I], Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Niedersachsen, Schleswig-Holstein, Sachsen-Anhalt, Thüringen); Poland; France; Romania; Bulgaria; Estonia; E-European Russia; W-European Russia; Moldova; Ukraine; Crimea; Siberia (Altai, W-Siberia); Kazakhstan; Turkmenistan; Uzbekistan; Northern Caucasus; Georgia [Caucasus]; Azerbaijan (Talysh)2,074361
9Ecuador2,031352
10Australia1,955316

Reading a country dashboard

Each of the 278 country pages at /countries contains a fixed set of analytical layers: taxonomic breakdown (which classes carry the threat burden in this country), top documented threats, endemic species, protected-area coverage, and where available the national red list comparison. The dashboard deliberately mixes local conservation reality with global IUCN assessments — divergence between the two is itself a signal.

National vs global — and why it matters here

A country dashboard that quotes "12 threatened species" using only the global IUCN list can hide a national crisis. Nepal's national red list, for example, flags species as Critically Endangered locally that are still Least Concern globally because their global range remains large elsewhere. We surface that gap explicitly on every dashboard — see the national red lists pillar for the full treatment.

Where to go next

Browse the full set at /countries, or read the deep dives in the spoke section below. For per-species questions, start at /threatened-species.

Data sourced from SpeciesRadar (speciesradar.org), drawing on IUCN Red List 2025-2, GBIF, and national red list assessments from 200+ countries. See our Methodology for how each figure is computed.

Articles in this series

New posts in the Country Biodiversity cluster are added here automatically.

  • Europe's Hidden Insect Crisis

    New data reveals 944 insect species drive threatened biodiversity across Europe and Western Asia — see the full taxonomic breakdown and what's being done.

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  • Austria's Hidden Insect Crisis

    When people picture Austria's natural heritage, they imagine snow-capped peaks, alpine meadows, and perhaps a golden eagle riding a thermal above a glacier.

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  • China's 2,130 Threatened Species Explained

    When most people picture China's endangered wildlife, they imagine giant pandas and Amur tigers. But the real story of the country's biodiversity crisis is

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  • Italy's 1,677 Threatened Species

    Ask most people what Italy's most endangered animal is, and they'll guess the Marsican brown bear or the Mediterranean monk seal. Almost no one will say

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  • Greece's Hidden Extinction Crisis

    Greece's 1,547 threatened species reveal insects as the top-risk group, with 533 species at stake. Explore the full IUCN data breakdown by taxon and biome.

    Read article →
  • Europe's Insect Crisis: 852 Species at Risk

    Stretch a map from the hedgerows of SE-England to the steppe of Kazakhstan, and you cover an astonishing range of habitat: temperate wetlands, Baltic Explore th

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  • Germany's Hidden Insect Crisis

    When most people picture Germany's wildlife under threat, they imagine wolves, storks, or the last wetland cranes. The real story is far smaller — and far more

    Read article →
  • America's Hidden Extinction Crisis

    When most people imagine America's endangered wildlife, they picture wolves, condors, or grizzly bears. But the real story of biodiversity loss in the United

    Read article →

Frequently asked questions

Which country has the most threatened species?
Madagascar has the highest absolute count at 3,987 threatened species, followed by Mexico, Indonesia, United States. The full ranked list and per-country dashboards are at /countries.
Why do tropical countries dominate the threatened-species lists?
Tropical countries — particularly Madagascar, Indonesia, Mexico, and Colombia — combine extremely high biodiversity (millions of species per square kilometre) with rapid habitat conversion. The combination produces both more species to be at risk and more pressure to push them there. Island and mountain endemism amplifies the effect by restricting species to small ranges where local extinction equals global extinction.
How does SpeciesRadar measure threatened species by country?
For each country we count species whose IUCN Red List category is CR, EN, or VU AND whose range overlaps the country (presence = "Extant"). National red list assessments are added separately and are visible on the country dashboard's "Local assessment" tab.