Average Wildfire Size by Country 2025
Key Findings
🏆
Canada leads in Hectares per Wildfire with 1,262 in 2025.
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Average Hectares per Wildfire in 2025: 516 · median: 411.
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Gap in 2025: Canada is 3.3× larger than Chad.
About This Dataset
Average Wildfire Size by Country 2025
What this chart shows. The average area burned per wildfire in 2025, for the 20 countries with the highest averages among those with at least 1,000 fires. Canada's fires averaged 1,262 hectares, followed by Australia with 909 and Botswana with 750.
How the data is collected. Our World in Data divides each country's GWIS burned area by its number of fire events. The world average was 424 hectares per fire.
Background. A high average means a typical fire burned a large area; it says nothing about how many fires a country had. Canada had 5,836 fires, far fewer than DR Congo's 79,186, whose fires averaged 390 hectares.
Limits. Countries with fewer than 1,000 fires are left out because one or two huge fires can dominate their average; South Korea, for example, averaged 1,342 hectares from only 52 fires. Averages also depend on how GWIS splits or merges neighbouring fires.
How the data is collected. Our World in Data divides each country's GWIS burned area by its number of fire events. The world average was 424 hectares per fire.
Background. A high average means a typical fire burned a large area; it says nothing about how many fires a country had. Canada had 5,836 fires, far fewer than DR Congo's 79,186, whose fires averaged 390 hectares.
Limits. Countries with fewer than 1,000 fires are left out because one or two huge fires can dominate their average; South Korea, for example, averaged 1,342 hectares from only 52 fires. Averages also depend on how GWIS splits or merges neighbouring fires.
Analysis
Russia's 12,332 fires averaged 566 hectares, more than Brazil's 474, although Brazil had almost three times as many fires.
Data Insights
Numbers, trends & sources behind this chart
Methodology & source
- Data source
- Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS) via Our World in Data
- Coverage
- 20 entities · 2025 · 20 observations
- Measure
- Hectares 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
Wildfires Burned Less Land in 2025 Than in Any Year Since 2012, but Canada's Fires Released the Most CO2
GWIS satellite data for 2025: wildfires burned 265.4 million hectares worldwide. Australia burned the most land, DR Congo had the most fires and Canada's fires...
Data Sources & References
All external sources cited in this dataset
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How these countries rank across all our charts
Each country's page lists its position in every ranking on ANYSTAT.
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