Recent developments in space-based surveying methods of Earth’s topography, including the differential synthetic aperture radar interferometry (DInSAR), increased the availability of options for monitoring of land subsidence. However, DInSAR methods require expert knowledge, specialized software, and are time-consuming. Here, we demonstrate that a land subsidence signal in the difference of freely available global digital elevation models (DEMs), e.g., SRTM and TanDEM-X, is identifiable using a simple statistical method. This finding opens up a venue to develop a dedicated computer application to identify land subsidence or uplift of the order > 20 mm yr. Such an application would allow for the monitoring of the impacts of underground mining, earthquakes, landslides, volcanic activities, and similar effects on the Earth’s topography. This software will provide a useful and cost-effective approach to scan the global DEMs for the benefit of many land planning and management agencies around the world.