Share of Land Burned by Wildfires by Country 2025

What this chart shows. The 25 countries where wildfires burned the largest share of land in 2025. In South Sudan the burned area equalled 23.12 per cent of the country's land, followed by Angola with 19.98 per cent and Zambia with 19.11 per cent.

How the data is collected. Our World in Data divides the GWIS burned area by each country's land area from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. Because land that burns twice is counted twice, the figure is burned area relative to land area rather than the share of distinct land that burned.

Background. The top eight on this chart are all in sub-Saharan Africa, where fires sweep through savannas and grasslands: in GWIS's separate land-cover data, 88.5 per cent of Africa's burned area in 2025 was savanna or grassland. By comparison, Australia, which burned the most land of any country, burned 4.61 per cent of its territory.

Limits. Small countries can move sharply between years because a few large fires make up much of their total. Satellite sensors also miss some small fires, so shares in countries with many small burns may be understated.