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Data for 2002

Burned Area, 2002

2002, as GWIS’s 2026 release gives it · stored as published, never rewritten

This is how much land burned in a year — forest, savanna, grassland and farmland — as seen from NASA's MODIS satellites and added up per country by the European Commission's Global Wildfire Information System. It counts wildfires and every other vegetation fire, including fires set to clear fields.

Burned Area, 2002 covers 209 countries on 6 measures. Australia is highest, at 77,040,096; 59 countries share the lowest reading, 0. The middle country reads 18,525.

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Burned Area · Data for 2002

HighestAustralia

77,040,096

Lowest59 countries share it

0

Shaded by value in five groups of equal size, darkest at the highest end.

01Values only

The table

Every country and every column of Burned Area, 2002, as published. The file carries values only, so no position is shown. “=” marks a shared position.

Showing 25 of 209 countries · select a heading to sort

Burned Area, 2002: every country, as published by European Commission Joint Research Centre — Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS).
AustraliaAUSAustralia and New Zealand77,040,096752,722.1057,678,16968,495,629.26387,387.54526,188.358
South SudanSSDEastern Africa35,333,93495,437.24818,756,44614,690,788.8211,765,095.33926,166.895
AngolaAGOMiddle Africa35,153,1702,083,133.62620,513,83512,302,432.030248,918.2024,851.288
DR CongoCODMiddle Africa31,266,8604,409,196.48725,261,8481,493,144.27354,437.44348,233.809
KazakhstanKAZCentral Asia23,451,0522,404.1785,32422,592,331.653849,125.3181,867.535
BrazilBRASouth America23,136,5132,667,649.20712,775,0466,336,874.2991,251,696.195105,247.152
ZambiaZMBEastern Africa21,870,9071,952,127.43715,227,5864,442,490.045152,235.93296,467.607
MozambiqueMOZEastern Africa19,385,4382,329,948.17513,971,1242,819,713.406258,599.3076,053.377
Central African RepublicCAFMiddle Africa17,118,2782,541,429.90210,976,2713,070,735.258527,330.4952,511.506
RussiaRUSEastern Europe15,745,6001,037,853.2476,650,9203,061,483.4694,982,764.46912,579.005
TanzaniaTZAEastern Africa12,700,5171,116,139.2437,710,2393,553,996.334312,221.0447,920.907
ChadTCDMiddle Africa11,699,348186,495.454900,3648,088,617.8692,522,969.253901.567
NigeriaNGAWestern Africa9,524,89961,843.1671,499,7773,551,141.3644,409,690.2042,447.110
EthiopiaETHEastern Africa8,445,144152,643.7835,343,1121,101,220.4651,847,288.143880.102
SudanSDNNorthern Africa8,279,32185.864268,4746,494,884.5471,515,382.900493.715
BotswanaBWASouthern Africa8,172,292193.19333,0368,125,560.627665.44212,836.590
MaliMLIWestern Africa6,908,68242.932177,0085,770,347.128953,492.3607,792.110
GhanaGHAWestern Africa6,496,9453,756.5271,402,4083,106,948.1731,982,909.493923.033
South AfricaZAFSouthern Africa5,281,72018,761.171172,0924,753,337.263334,910.4582,618.837
CameroonCMRMiddle Africa5,085,157125,832.9193,386,563294,232.6431,276,746.8621,781.668
ArgentinaARGSouth America5,058,79790,671.8321,487,9072,922,706.643529,326.83028,184.684
GuineaGINWestern Africa4,980,06013,759.6253,872,722595,913.941497,299.749364.920
SenegalSENWestern Africa4,947,6462,425.644346,2663,694,125.508904,764.84464.398
BoliviaBOLSouth America4,632,8711,094,759.2362,630,342739,370.337130,383.67938,016.052
Côte d’IvoireCIVWestern Africa4,211,6259,852.8363,437,501722,991.87841,214.46764.398

02In 2002

At either end

The 5 countries at each end of the headline, then the highest and lowest on each other measure.

Highest

  1. Australia77,040,096
  2. South Sudan35,333,934
  3. Angola35,153,170
  4. DR Congo31,266,860
  5. Kazakhstan23,451,052

Lowest

  1. Yemenshared0
  2. Kosovoshared0
  3. Samoashared0
  4. Vanuatushared0
  5. United States Virgin Islandsshared0

Neither end is better. The values describe a shape, not a score. The middle country reads 18,525. “Shared” marks a value another country also holds.

Each measure’s ends

  • Burned forest (hectares)

    HighestDR Congo4,409,196.487

    Lowest98 share it

    Middle country: 42.932

  • Burned savanna (hectares)

    HighestDR Congo25,261,848

    Lowest85 share it

    Middle country: 408

  • Burned shrubland and grassland (hectares)

    HighestAustralia68,495,629.263

    Lowest68 share it

    Middle country: 944.498

  • Burned cropland (hectares)

    HighestRussia4,982,764.469

    Lowest70 share it

    Middle country: 2,661.766

  • Other burned land (hectares)

    HighestBrazil105,247.152

    Lowest109 share it

    Middle country: 0.000

03Caveats

Read before you use

How values are stored

  • One year of the 2026 release

    Every year in this series comes from GWIS’s 2026 release, recalculated on one method, so a change from one year to the next is not a revision. It can differ from what was first published for 2002.

  • 148 distinct values among 209

    Values are stored exactly as published, to 14 decimals. 59 countries share 0. Countries sharing a value share a position too.

  • Nothing missing

    Every one of the 209 countries has every column.

04The files

Download and cite

Licence in full
  • .csv

    For a spreadsheet or code

    209 rows · 16 KB · UTF-8, opens in Excel

    Opens with 11 lines of source notes; the table starts on row 13.

    Download burned-area-2002-nations-inquiry.csv
  • ↗

    The publisher’s original

    GWIS’s own file, on its own site.

    banf

What this site changed: Reshaped to one row per country, with its ISO code; no value recalculated, rescaled or rounded. In full

Licence: CC BY 4.0 · what it allows, in plain words

Cite this edition

European Commission Joint Research Centre — Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS) (2002). Burned Area, 2002 [data set], describing 2002. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/burned-area/2002

0524 held

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