Average Wildfire Size by State 2025
Key Findings
🏆
Alaska leads in Acres per Wildfire with 2,163.80 in 2025.
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Average Acres per Wildfire in 2025: 243 · median: 121.
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Gap in 2025: Alaska is 58.2× larger than Minnesota.
About This Dataset
Average Wildfire Size by State 2025
What this chart shows. The average number of acres burned per wildfire in 2025, for the 20 states with the highest averages among the 43 states that had at least 100 fires. Alaska's fires averaged 2,163.8 acres, 5.3 times the 411.7 of second-placed Nevada.
How the data is collected. The average is each state's total burned area divided by its number of fires, both taken from the NICC annual report. Across the whole country the figure was 65.9 acres per fire.
Background. The report describes a late-June heat wave with thunderstorms over Alaska's Interior that started numerous significant fires, five of which grew beyond 50,000 acres each. At the other end, Maine's 856 fires averaged 0.6 acres, the smallest of the 43 states.
Limits. An average is pulled up by a few huge fires: in Nebraska, the Dismal River Ranch fire is listed at 50,000 of the state's 96,682 acres, more than half. The report does not publish a median fire size by state, which would better describe a typical fire.
How the data is collected. The average is each state's total burned area divided by its number of fires, both taken from the NICC annual report. Across the whole country the figure was 65.9 acres per fire.
Background. The report describes a late-June heat wave with thunderstorms over Alaska's Interior that started numerous significant fires, five of which grew beyond 50,000 acres each. At the other end, Maine's 856 fires averaged 0.6 acres, the smallest of the 43 states.
Limits. An average is pulled up by a few huge fires: in Nebraska, the Dismal River Ranch fire is listed at 50,000 of the state's 96,682 acres, more than half. The report does not publish a median fire size by state, which would better describe a typical fire.
Analysis
Oklahoma's 2,530 wildfires averaged 120.2 acres, slightly more than Oregon's 118.5, even though almost all of Oklahoma's fires were human-caused.
Data Insights
Numbers, trends & sources behind this chart
Methodology & source
- Data source
- National Interagency Fire Center (NICC Annual Report 2025)
- Coverage
- 20 entities · 2025 · 20 observations
- Measure
- Acres per Wildfire
- Last updated
- 29 September 2026
- Compiled by
- The ANYSTAT team, from the source above
How the figures are calculated
- Values use the measure and unit named on this page. Consult the dataset description and cited source for coverage, definitions and any unit conversions. Displayed values may be rounded for readability.
- Entities are ranked highest-first on their value in 2025.
An article using this data
California Had the Most Wildfires in 2025, but Alaska Burned the Most Land
NIFC data for 2025: 77,850 US wildfires burned 5,131,474 acres. California had 8,951 fires, Alaska burned 1,006,158 acres, and the Dragon Bravo Fire was the lar...
Data Sources & References
All external sources cited in this dataset
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How these states rank across all our charts
Each state's page lists its position in every state-by-state chart on ANYSTAT.
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