Forest fires — Burned Area — FAO TIER 1 in Americas

Americas: Forest fires — Burned Area — FAO TIER 1 was 13.85 million ha in 2024. ▲ Rising

Latest (2024)
13.85 million ha
Change on year
up 98.8%
Rank
6th
of 36 groups
All-time high
13.85 million ha
in 2024
All-time low
1.93 million ha
in 2009
Years of data
35
1990–2024

Forest fires — Burned Area — FAO TIER 1 in Americas, 1990–2024

2.5M5.0M7.5M10.0M12.5M15.0M1990200720241990: 4.8M ha1991: 4.8M ha1992: 4.8M ha1993: 4.8M ha1994: 4.8M ha1995: 4.8M ha1996: 3.3M ha1997: 3.2M ha1998: 6.3M ha1999: 5.0M ha2000: 2.3M ha2001: 2.4M ha2002: 4.9M ha2003: 5.2M ha2004: 6.2M ha2005: 6.3M ha2006: 3.9M ha2007: 7.6M ha2008: 3.3M ha2009: 1.9M ha2010: 8.7M ha2011: 3.1M ha2012: 3.5M ha2013: 2.3M ha2014: 2.0M ha2015: 4.3M ha2016: 3.4M ha2017: 4.5M ha2018: 2.7M ha2019: 5.8M ha2020: 6.8M ha2021: 5.0M ha2022: 4.3M ha2023: 7.0M ha2024: 13.9M ha

Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Measured in ha.

Analysis

In 2024, forest fires — burned area — fao tier 1 in Americas stood at 13.85 million ha. That is the highest value across all 35 years on record.

Compared with earlier readings it is up 98.8% on the previous year and up 582.5% over ten years.

Over the whole period, forest fires — burned area — fao tier 1 in Americas peaked at 13.85 million ha in 2024 and was at its lowest, 1.93 million ha, in 2009.

Americas ranks 6th of 36 groups on this measure, in the top quarter.

The long-run direction has been consistently rising across the 35 years of available data.

Averages by decade

DecadeAverage LowestHighest Years
1990s 4.67 million ha 3.22 million ha 6.33 million ha 10
2000s 4.42 million ha 1.93 million ha 7.62 million ha 10
2010s 4.03 million ha 2.03 million ha 8.72 million ha 10
2020s 7.40 million ha 4.31 million ha 13.85 million ha 5

Countries ranked near Americas

  1. 3 Democratic Republic of the Congo 3.50 million ha compare
  2. 4 Zambia 2.93 million ha compare
  3. 5 Mozambique 2.26 million ha compare
  4. 6 Angola 1.85 million ha compare
  5. 7 OECD 1.77 million ha compare
  6. 8 Myanmar 1.29 million ha compare
  7. 9 Russian Federation 723,318 ha compare

See the full ranking of 272 places →

More climate change data for Americas

All data for Americas →

Frequently asked questions

What is forest fires — burned area — fao tier 1 in Americas?
Forest fires — burned area — fao tier 1 in Americas was 13.85 million ha in 2024, according to Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
What is the highest forest fires — burned area — fao tier 1 recorded in Americas?
The highest recorded value was 13.85 million ha in 2024.
What is the lowest forest fires — burned area — fao tier 1 recorded in Americas?
The lowest recorded value was 1.93 million ha in 2009.
How does Americas rank for forest fires — burned area — fao tier 1?
Americas ranks 6th out of 36 groups with data for 2024.
Is forest fires — burned area — fao tier 1 rising or falling in Americas?
Over the last ten years it is up 582.5%. The long-run trend across the full record is rising.
Where does this Americas data come from?
The figures come from Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, published as part of Forest fires — Burned Area — FAO TIER 1. Statizoid updates them automatically from the source API.

Download this data

CSV · JSON — 35 observations, free to reuse under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO (FAO).

About this data

Indicator
Forest fires — Burned Area — FAO TIER 1
Unit
ha
Source
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Licence
CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO (FAO)
Coverage
272 places, 9,294 data points, 1990–2024
Last refreshed

The FAOSTAT domain on Emissions from Fires consists of estimates of methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O) and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions generated from biomass burning in a range of vegetation types and from fires in organic soils.