In total, black soils cover about 7 percent of the ice-free land surface and are distributed as follow:

Chernozems cover an estimated of 230 million hectares worldwide as a continuous belt in steppe and forest-steppe landscapes in:

·      Russia and Ukraine;

·      The Great Plains of the US;

·      Northern Kazakhstan, and;

·      Locally in some countries of Central Europe.

The total extent of Kastanozems is estimated to be about 465 million hectares. Major areas are in: 

·      the Eurasian short-grass steppe belt (southern Ukraine, the south of the Russian Federation, Kazakhstan and Mongolia);

·      the Great Plains of the US and Canada;

·      Mexico, and;

·      The Pampas and Chaco regions of northern Argentina, Paraguay and south-eastern Bolivia.

Phaeozems cover an estimated 190 million hectares worldwide:

·      In the humid and sub-humid Central Lowlands and easternmost parts of the Great Plains of the US;

·      In the subtropical Pampas of Argentina and Uruguay;

·      In north-eastern China;

·      iDscontinuous areas in the centre of the Russian Federation;

·      Smaller, mostly discontinuous areas are found in Central Europe, notably the Danube area of Hungary and adjacent countries and;

·      In montane areas in the tropics.