Chinese scientists use laser drones to count the country's trees — all 142.6 billion of them

Aerial view of forest and bare hillside with trees growing on it.

A new estimate suggests China is home to 142.6 billion trees, meaning the country has roughly 100 trees per inhabitant.

These numbers are considerable, given how densely populated China is, an expert told Live Science. Still, the total figure may be an underestimate due to the limitations of the technology used to count the trees, the authors of the new study said.