National parks around the world: official lists

TL;DR

We list national parks only from government sources whose terms allow use on a commercial website like this one. The counts run from one park in Portugal, Slovenia or Switzerland to 722 in Australia's national database, where most are managed by state and territory agencies; the United States lists 63, and Canada's law 36 parks and 9 reserves.²³²⁶²⁹²³⁶⁷

How many national parks does each country list?

Each country has its own page with the full list, its source and its licence credit. The numbers are our own counts of each official list when we checked it, and each is described the way its source describes it.

National parks by country, from official lists
Country	National parks as listed	Source	Licence	Country page
Argentina	39 on APN's regional pages¹	Administración de Parques Nacionales	CC BY 4.0	See the list
Australia	722 in CAPAD 2024: 715 state and territory parks and 7 Commonwealth records²	Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (CAPAD)	CC BY (version not stated)	See the list
Austria	6 national parks³	Umweltbundesamt GmbH (data.gv.at)	CC BY 4.0	See the list
Belgium	4 recognised by Flanders and 2 by Wallonia⁴⁵	Agentschap voor Natuur en Bos; Service public de Wallonie	Wallonia CC BY 4.0; Flanders free reuse	See the list
Brazil	77 federal parks⁶	Ministério do Meio Ambiente e Mudança do Clima (CNUC)	CC BY (version not stated)	See the list
Canada	36 national parks and 9 national park reserves in the Act (Kluane in both)⁷	Canada National Parks Act (Justice Laws Website)	Reproduction of Federal Law Order; OGL-Canada	See the list
Colombia	44 national natural parks⁸	Parques Nacionales Naturales de Colombia	CC BY-SA 4.0	See the list
Czechia	4 national parks⁹	Nature Conservation Agency (AOPK ČR)	CC BY 4.0	See the list
Denmark	5 national parks under the National Parks Act¹⁰	Executive orders of the Miljøministeriet (Retsinformation)	Not subject to copyright (statutory)	See the list
Estonia	6 national parks¹¹	Keskkonnaagentuur (EELIS)	CC BY 4.0	See the list
Finland	41 national parks¹²	Metsähallitus; Finnish Environment Institute (Syke)	CC BY 4.0	See the list
France	11 national parks¹³	Parcs nationaux de France	Licence Ouverte / Open Licence 2.0	See the list
Germany	16 national parks¹⁴	Bundesamt für Naturschutz (BfN)	GeoNutzV (commercial use allowed)	See the list
Ireland	6 national parks¹⁵	National Parks and Wildlife Service	CC BY 4.0	See the list
Italy	27 on the ministry list (2 with provisional boundaries)¹⁶	Ministero dell'Ambiente e della Sicurezza Energetica (MASE)	CC BY 4.0	See the list
Latvia	4 national parks¹⁷	Nature Conservation Agency (Dabas aizsardzības pārvalde)	CC0 1.0	See the list
Netherlands	22 national parks, 2 of them private and 1 cross-border¹⁸	Ministerie van Landbouw, Natuur en Voedselkwaliteit	Public domain	See the list
New Zealand	13 national parks¹⁹	Department of Conservation	CC BY 4.0	See the list
Norway	48 national parks, 7 of them on Svalbard²⁰	Miljødirektoratet (Norwegian Environment Agency)	NLOD 2.0	See the list
Philippines	94 protected areas within the national park classification (Republic Act No. 11038)²¹	Republic Act No. 11038, Section 5	Statute: no conditions	See the list
Poland	23 national parks²²	Ministerstwo Klimatu i Środowiska	CC BY-SA 4.0	See the list
Portugal	1 national park, Peneda-Gerês²³	Instituto da Conservação da Natureza e das Florestas (ICNF)	CC BY 4.0	See the list
Romania	13 national parks²⁴	Ministry of Environment, Waters and Forests	CC BY 4.0	See the list
Slovakia	9 national parks²⁵	Štátna ochrana prírody SR; Štatistický úrad SR	CC BY 4.0	See the list
Slovenia	1 national park, Triglavski narodni park²⁶	Agencija Republike Slovenije za okolje (ARSO)	ARSO legal notice (commercial reuse with source)	See the list
South Korea	23 in the dataset; may not include the most recent²⁷	Korea National Park Service	Unrestricted scope of use (data.go.kr)	See the list
Spain	16 national parks²⁸	Organismo Autónomo Parques Nacionales (OAPN)	CC BY 4.0	See the list
Switzerland	1 national park, the Schweizerischer Nationalpark²⁹	Federal Office for the Environment (BAFU)	opendata.swiss: open use, source required	See the list
Taiwan	9 national parks and 1 national nature park³⁰³¹	Ministry of the Interior, Department of Statistics	Open Government Data License 1.0	See the list
Ukraine	56 national nature parks in the State Cadastre³²	Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources	Creative Commons Attribution (no version stated)	See the list
United Kingdom	15 in three datasets: England 10 (with The Broads), Wales 3, Scotland 2³³³⁴³⁵	Natural England; Natural Resources Wales; Scottish Government	Open Government Licence v3.0	See the list
United States	63 national parks³⁶	U.S. National Park Service	U.S. Government work (public domain)	See the list

Does national park mean the same everywhere?

No. Each page uses the designation as its source defines it, so the lists are not alike. Most of Australia's national parks are managed by state and territory agencies.² Canada's list comes from the schedules of its National Parks Act, which also lists national park reserves.⁷ Belgium's national parks are recognised by its regions.⁴⁵ Taiwan's statistics list a national nature park alongside the national parks.³¹ The Philippines' list is of protected areas that a 2018 Act places within the legal classification of national park; none of them is named a national park.²¹

Why do the year columns differ?

A year in one source can mean designation, gazettal, the date of a legal act or the date of a current protection regulation. Each country page labels its year column with what the source's field records, and leaves a year out when the source does not support it. Some pages have no years at all because their sources give none.

Why are some countries missing?

Their governments' terms do not allow use on commercial websites, or the data could not be reached. We would rather leave a country out than use its list without permission, and we add countries when a usable official source is confirmed. Japan's national parks have their own page: national parks of Japan.

How are the lists credited?

Each country page carries the credit and licence wording its source asks for, links the licence, says what we changed, and uses no logos or images from the source. None of the lists is endorsed by the government that publishes it.

What this page cannot tell you

Lists change. Parks are added and data is updated; each page gives the list as its source stood when we checked it.
Not comparable country to country. Each government defines national park in its own way, so the counts measure different things.
Researched, not travelled. We compiled these lists from official sources, not from visits.

Key takeaways

Each country's list comes from its own government source, used only where the licence allows commercial use.
Australia's national database has the most, 722; Portugal, Slovenia and Switzerland have one each.
The year columns mean different things in different countries; each page says what.
What we would skip: comparing countries by their number of national parks. Each government defines the designation differently, so a higher count does not mean more protected land.

Sources

Every count on this page comes from the government source named on that country's page, read on 1 October 2026. See how we research.

Administración de Parques Nacionales (APN), Argentina.gob.ar, regional pages: Noroeste, Noreste, Centro, Patagonia Norte and Patagonia Austral. Read APN's pages on Argentina.gob.ar. Accessed 1 October 2026.
Australian Government, Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, Collaborative Australian Protected Areas Database (CAPAD) 2024, protected areas layer. Read the layer metadata, which states the licence. Accessed 1 October 2026.
Umweltbundesamt GmbH, Nationalparks (data.gv.at). Read the dataset on data.gv.at. Accessed 1 October 2026.
Agentschap voor Natuur en Bos (Vlaamse overheid), Nationale Parken Vlaanderen. Read it on natuurenbos.be. Accessed 1 October 2026.
Service public de Wallonie (SPW), Parcs nationaux de Wallonie (2024-04-04). Read the record on the Walloon Geoportal. Accessed 1 October 2026.
Ministério do Meio Ambiente e Mudança do Clima, Unidades de Conservação: Cadastro Nacional de Unidades de Conservação (CNUC), release CNUC_2026_07. Read the dataset record on dados.mma.gov.br. Accessed 1 October 2026.
Justice Laws Website, Government of Canada, Canada National Parks Act (S.C. 2000, c. 32), Schedules 1 and 2. Read the Act on the Justice Laws Website. Accessed 1 October 2026.
Parques Nacionales Naturales de Colombia, Límites oficiales (Limites Precisados - Poligono) and Registro Único Nacional de Áreas Protegidas (RUNAP); RUNAP layer on datos.gov.co. Read the boundary dataset record. Accessed 1 October 2026.
Agentura ochrany přírody a krajiny ČR (AOPK ČR), Velkoplošná zvláště chráněná území (large-scale specially protected areas). Read the dataset page on data.nature.cz. Accessed 1 October 2026.
Miljøministeriet, via Retsinformation, Bekendtgørelse om Nationalpark ... (the executive order creating each park, and the current orders). Read the order for Kongernes Nordsjælland on retsinformation.dk. Accessed 1 October 2026.
Keskkonnaagentuur (Estonian Environment Agency), EELIS, KKR kaitsealad (protected areas register). Read the service description. Accessed 1 October 2026.
Metsähallitus; Finnish Environment Institute (Syke), Luonnonsuojelu- ja erämaa-alueet (protected areas and wilderness reserves). Read the dataset record. Accessed 1 October 2026.
Parcs nationaux de France, Contours des 11 Parcs nationaux de France (updated 11 February 2026). Read the dataset on data.gouv.fr. Accessed 1 October 2026.
Bundesamt für Naturschutz (BfN), Schutzgebiete in Deutschland: Nationalparke (WFS layer) and INSPIRE Protected Sites (site names). Read the service description. Accessed 1 October 2026.
National Parks and Wildlife Service, Government of Ireland, National Parks of Ireland, National Park Boundaries layer; and the six park records on data.gov.ie. Read the service record. Accessed 1 October 2026.
Ministero dell'Ambiente e della Sicurezza Energetica (MASE), Elenco dei Parchi (last updated 21 May 2025). Read it on mase.gov.it. Accessed 1 October 2026.
Dabas aizsardzības pārvalde (Nature Conservation Agency of Latvia), Īpaši aizsargājamās dabas teritorijas (specially protected nature areas). Read the dataset record on data.gov.lv. Accessed 1 October 2026.
Ministerie van Landbouw, Natuur en Voedselkwaliteit, Nationale Parken (data.overheid.nl and PDOK). Read the dataset on data.overheid.nl. Accessed 1 October 2026.
Department of Conservation (Te Papa Atawhai), DOC Public Conservation Land. Read the dataset record. Accessed 1 October 2026.
Miljødirektoratet (Norwegian Environment Agency), Naturvernområder (protected areas). Read the dataset in Miljødirektoratet's map catalogue. Accessed 1 October 2026.
Republic of the Philippines, Republic Act No. 11038 (Expanded National Integrated Protected Areas System Act of 2018), Section 5 (copy in the Supreme Court E-Library). Read the Act in the Supreme Court E-Library. Accessed 1 October 2026.
Ministerstwo Klimatu i Środowiska (Ministry of Climate and Environment), Jednostki podległe i nadzorowane (units subordinate to and supervised by the Minister). Read it on gov.pl. Accessed 1 October 2026.
Instituto da Conservação da Natureza e das Florestas (ICNF), Rede Nacional de Áreas Protegidas (RNAP). Read the dataset record on dados.gov.pt. Accessed 1 October 2026.
Ministerul Mediului, Apelor și Pădurilor (Ministry of Environment, Waters and Forests), Arii naturale protejate România. Read the dataset record on data.gov.ro. Accessed 1 October 2026.
Štátna ochrana prírody Slovenskej republiky (State Nature Conservancy), Chránené územia - veľkoplošné chránené územia (VCHÚ). Read the dataset record on data.gov.sk. Accessed 1 October 2026.
Agencija Republike Slovenije za okolje (ARSO), Zavarovana območja (protected areas, WFS layer). Read the service description. Accessed 1 October 2026.
Korea National Park Service (국립공원공단), 국립공원 공원경계 (National Park Boundary), Public Data Portal dataset 15017313. Read the dataset on data.go.kr. Accessed 1 October 2026.
Organismo Autónomo Parques Nacionales (OAPN), Límites de los parques nacionales (layer metadata, and the same layer through OAPN's WFS service); the WFS service. Read the metadata (PDF). Accessed 1 October 2026.
Federal Office for the Environment FOEN (BAFU), Swiss National Park and parks of national importance (Perimeter). Read the dataset on opendata.swiss. Accessed 1 October 2026.
Ministry of the Interior, Department of Statistics (內政部統計處), 國家(自然)公園面積─按國家公園別及海陸域別分 (data.gov.tw dataset 13479). Read the dataset on data.gov.tw. Accessed 1 October 2026.
Ministry of the Interior, Department of Statistics (內政部統計處), 違反國家公園法案件─按國家公園別分 (data.gov.tw dataset 13465). Read the dataset on data.gov.tw. Accessed 1 October 2026.
Міністерство захисту довкілля та природних ресурсів України (Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine), Державний кадастр територій та об’єктів природно-заповідного фонду (State Cadastre of territories and objects of the nature reserve fund). Read the dataset on data.gov.ua. Accessed 1 October 2026.
Natural England, National Parks (England). Read the dataset record. Accessed 1 October 2026.
Natural Resources Wales, National Parks (DataMapWales). Read the dataset record on DataMapWales. Accessed 1 October 2026.
Scottish Government, Cairngorms National Park Designated Boundary; Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park Designated Boundary. Read the Cairngorms record on SpatialData.gov.scot; read the Loch Lomond and The Trossachs record. Accessed 1 October 2026.
U.S. National Park Service, National Park System (page last updated 18 September 2026). Read it on nps.gov. Accessed 1 October 2026.

Changes made. The counts are our own counts of each official list, and the descriptions are summaries in our own words. The full credit and licence for each list, as its source requires, is on that country's page. We use no logos or images from any source. Gallivanting Gadabout is not connected with, or endorsed by, any of the governments or agencies whose lists we use.

National parks around the world, from official lists