# List of National Geographic cover stories (2020s)

This is a list of National Geographic cover stories including writers and photographers starting from January 2020.
For a complete list of cover stories from 1959 to 2024, see the List of National Geographic cover stories.

## 2020

2020 :
| Title | Date | Author | Photographer | Images |
| Pain | January 2020 | Robert Clark, et al. | Magic Torch | Human brain |
| Last Journey into Slavery | February 2020 | Joel K. Bourne, Jr., et al. | Kadir Nelson | Slave ship |
| The End of Trash | March 2020 | Robert Kunzig | Luca Locatelli | Massive pile of clothes |
| How We Lost the Planet, How we Saved the World | April 2020 | Susan Goldberg | Imaginary Forces | Earth |
| You'll Miss Them When There Gone | May 2020 | Elizabeth Kolbert | David Liittschwager | Insects |
| The Last Voices of World War II | June 2020 | Lynne Olson | Robert Clark | Lawrence Brooks |
| Everest | July 2020 | Mark Synnott | William Faucett | Mount Everest |
| Stopping Pandemics | August 2020 | Richard Conniff | Max Aguilera-Hellweg | Man in a gas mask |
| Meet the Robots | September 2020 | David Berreby | Spencer Lowell | Robot hand |
| Reimaging Dinosaurs | October 2020 | Michael Greshko | Davide Bonadonna | Deinonychus |
| A World Gone Viral | November 2020 | Multiple authors & stories | Cédric Gerbehaye | X-ray of human lungs |
| Saving the Great Lakes | December 2020 | Tim Folger | Keith Ladzinski | Lake Michigan |

## 2021

2021 :
| Title | Date | Author | Photographer | Images |
| 2020: 71 photographs from an Unforgettable year | January 2021 | Susan Goldberg | Kris Graves | Robert E. Lee Monument |
| Mysteries of a virus | February 2021 | David Quammen | Markos Kay | Mimivirus |
| Mars | March 2021 | Nadia Drake | ESA | Mars |
| The fight for Clean Air | April 2021 | Beth Gardiner | Matthieu Paley | Power plant in Ulaanbaatar |
| Secrets of the Whales | May 2021 | Craig Welch | Brian Skerry | Humpback whale |
| Reckoning with the Past | June 2021 | Cynthia Gorney | Kadir Nelson | Kadir Nelson painting |
| Beating the Heat | July 2021 | Alejandra Borunda | Elliot Ross | Tree canopy |
| Gladiators | August 2021 | Andrew Curry | Fernando Baptista | Thraex gladiator |
| Mysteries of the Solar System | September 2021 | Michael Greshko | Monica Serrano | Patroclus |
| The Revolution is Here | October 2021 | Craig Welch, et al. | Bose Collins | The future |
| 100 Wonders of the World | November 2021 | Andrew Lawler | Kadir Nelson | Kadir Nelson painting |
| Welcome to Earth | December 2021 | Paula Kahumbu | Charlie Hamilton James | Egrets & Wildebeests |

## 2022

2022 :
| Title | Date | Author | Photographer | Images |
| 2021 The Year in Pictures | January 2022 | — | Dar Yasin Brian Skerry Lynsey Addario Kiana Hayeri | Health professional |
| Notre-Dame | February 2022 | Robert Kunzig | Tomas van Houtryve | Notre-Dame de Paris |
| Into the Depths | March 2022 | Tara Roberts | Wayne Lawrence | shipwrecks |
| Exploring Islands in the Sky | April 2022 | Mark Synnott | Renan Öztürk | A tepui |
| Saving Forests | May 2022 | Alejandra Borunda | Keith Ladzinski | Forest |
| The Power of Touch | June 2022 | Cynthia Gorney | Lynn Johnson | Woman and baby |
| We Are Here | July 2022 | Charles C. Mann | Kiliii YuYan | Native nations |
| Stonehenge Revealed | August 2022 | Roff Smith | Reuben Wu | Sunset at Stonehenge |
| America the Beautiful | September 2022 | Emma Marris | Stephen Wilkes | Bears Ears |
| Minds of Their Own | October 2022 | Yudhijit Bhattacharjee | Vincent Lagrange | Sphynx cat |
| Tuts Treasures | November 2022 | Paolo Verzone | Sandro Vannini | Tutankhamun |
| Pictures of the Year | December 2022 | — | Arturo Rodríguez | Volcanic eruption |

## 2023

2023 :
| Title | Date | Author | Photographer | Images |
| Living Longer and Better | January 2023 | Fran Smith | Jasper Doest | Older man skydiving |
| The Future is Folded | February 2023 | Maya Wei-Haas | Craig Cutler | Origami |
| Going Home | March 2023 | Andrew Curry | Richard Barnes | Bronze Head from Ife |
| 8 Billion: The Population Paradox | April 2023 | Craig Welch | Justin Metz | Earth |
| Secrets of the Elephants | May 2023 | Srinath Perur | Brent Stirton | Asian elephants |
| Into the Wild | June 2023 | Peter Guin | Katie Orlinsky | Gila Hot Springs |
| Chasing the unknown | July 2023 | Multiple authors & stories | Steven Alvarez | Ellison's Cave |
| An Arctic Mystery | August 2023 | Mark Synnott | Renan Öztürk | Peel Sound, Canada |
| Inside the Dome of the Rock | September 2023 | Andrew Lawler | Ziyah Gafić | Dome of the Rock |
| Space | October 2023 | Multiple authors & stories | NASAJPLSSI | Saturn's moon Enceladus |
| The Race to Save the Planet | November 2023 | Sam Howe Verhovek | Davide Monteleone | Geodesic dome |
| Pictures of the Year | December 2023 | Multiple authors | Kyle Yuman | Yellow-lipped sea krait |

## 2024

2024 :
| Title | Date | Author | Photographer | Images |
| Saving the Monarchs | January 2024 | Michelle Nijhuis | Jaime Rojo | Monarch butterflies |
| The Glass Age | February 2024 | Jay Bennett | Christopher Payne | Curled Sheet glass |
| Spotted Hyenas | March 2024 | Christine Dell'Amore | Jen Guyton | Infrared photo of a Spotted hyena and her cub, in Kenya. |
| Fabulous Fungi | April 2024 | Sarah Gibbens | Agorastos Papatsanis | Mushrooms of Kallipefki, Larissa, Greece |
| Secrets of the Octopus | May 2024 | Rachel Fobar | David Liittschwager | California two-spot octopus |
| Gulf of Maine | June 2024 | Brian Skerry | Brian Skerry | Alewives |