The cork oak occupies the area around the western Mediterranean basin. In Portugal, natural and cultivated stands cover an area of 750,000 hectares. There are natural populations of the nominate form at altitudes between above sea level, the subspecies "occidentalis" is found along the Atlantic coast. In Spain the occurrences mostly remain below , but rarely reach heights of . Cork oaks are rare in central Spain. In Italy one finds natural occurrences along the Tyrrhenian Sea and in eastern Apulia on the Adriatic Sea. Also on the Adriatic is the cork oak on the Dalmatian coast. It is one of the most common forest trees in Sardinia. Natural and man-made occurrences exist in Africa on the Mediterranean coast of Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco and at altitudes up to , on the High Atlas up to . In its native range, cork oak forests cover approximately . Outside of its natural range, the cork oak is cultivated in the Crimea, the Caucasus, India and the Southwestern United States. The subspecies "Quercus suber occidentalis" also thrives in mild areas of England.