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Data for 2019

Burned Area, 2019

2019, 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, 2019 covers 209 countries on 6 measures. Angola is highest, at 37,251,072; 52 countries share the lowest reading, 0. The middle country reads 14,661. Against 2018, 164 values changed (101 up, 63 down), the same countries are covered.

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Burned Area · Data for 2019

HighestAngola

37,251,072

Lowest52 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, 2019, 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, 2019: every country, as published by European Commission Joint Research Centre — Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS).
AngolaAGOMiddle Africa37,251,0722,747,738.34822,667,526.57711,661,525.623150,647.45923,633.923
AustraliaAUSAustralia and New Zealand36,150,2163,295,933.6716,053,224.32726,319,536.056453,573.77627,948.563
DR CongoCODMiddle Africa32,966,4424,835,594.46726,883,165.3381,185,559.84621,122.41940,999.808
ZambiaZMBEastern Africa22,762,5353,977,796.94114,801,831.7533,846,318.50952,333.78484,253.528
BrazilBRASouth America19,473,9212,087,276.55210,265,364.1465,633,781.2891,401,399.15286,099.600
MozambiqueMOZEastern Africa18,589,0333,357,368.98213,199,791.1371,986,601.62640,720.7544,550.768
South SudanSSDEastern Africa18,115,775145,817.64010,843,354.0866,240,578.420841,869.85344,155.289
Central African RepublicCAFMiddle Africa14,748,2963,374,026.4969,410,485.9701,888,695.80669,570.8765,516.728
RussiaRUSEastern Europe11,571,6701,108,733.5265,747,636.2513,096,880.6881,590,620.77627,798.308
TanzaniaTZAEastern Africa10,313,2551,190,561.4026,819,727.5162,267,546.89728,935.9896,482.697
KazakhstanKAZCentral Asia8,233,21285.8643,091.0867,793,912.974421,052.98715,069.040
ChadTCDMiddle Africa6,486,534176,707.019243,616.1275,121,133.439944,648.421429.318
NigeriaNGAWestern Africa6,323,78040,849.550976,611.1072,553,429.3172,751,065.5581,824.599
BoliviaBOLSouth America5,463,5782,176,252.5692,592,561.596614,117.00368,046.79812,600.465
MaliMLIWestern Africa5,402,830171.72775,989.1704,924,377.292399,823.2462,468.575
SudanSDNNorthern Africa5,341,717901.566181,579.7724,407,028.425752,206.9210.000
IndiaINDSouthern Asia4,829,112621,308.071264,330.699136,415.5933,805,962.6741,094.761
GhanaGHAWestern Africa4,774,1599,251.7921,031,778.3812,969,309.029762,768.1291,051.829
EthiopiaETHEastern Africa4,405,032191,110.6172,823,813.384927,583.058461,902.537622.511
SenegalSENWestern Africa4,019,1625,946.046307,906.4003,448,835.039255,422.3571,051.828
Republic of the CongoCOGMiddle Africa3,648,46875,645.7211,550,501.0681,998,536.6509,444.98114,339.203
GuineaGINWestern Africa3,610,88114,038.6803,047,036.937350,301.489195,554.0543,949.719
MadagascarMDGEastern Africa3,540,40892,346.163152,772.5773,283,397.6018,242.8923,649.200
VenezuelaVENSouth America3,537,639125,596.7931,494,904.4801,823,289.30779,702.77114,146.007
South AfricaZAFSouthern Africa2,851,69838,144.848170,889.7782,468,467.415173,272.481923.034

02In 2019

At either end

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

Highest

  1. Angola37,251,072
  2. Australia36,150,216
  3. DR Congo32,966,442
  4. Zambia22,762,535
  5. Brazil19,473,921

Lowest

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

Neither end is better. The values describe a shape, not a score. The middle country reads 14,661. “Shared” marks a value another country also holds.

Each measure’s ends

  • Burned forest (hectares)

    HighestDR Congo4,835,594.467

    Lowest90 share it

    Middle country: 128.795

  • Burned savanna (hectares)

    HighestDR Congo26,883,165.338

    Lowest72 share it

    Middle country: 1,395.282

  • Burned shrubland and grassland (hectares)

    HighestAustralia26,319,536.056

    Lowest63 share it

    Middle country: 2,275.382

  • Burned cropland (hectares)

    HighestIndia3,805,962.674

    Lowest70 share it

    Middle country: 2,060.724

  • Other burned land (hectares)

    HighestBrazil86,099.600

    Lowest119 share it

    Middle country: 0.000

032018 → 2019

Since 2018

  • +0 / −0countries joined / left
  • 164values changed, of 209 in both
  • 101 · 63rose · fell
  • 45unchanged

Rose most

  • Brazil8,678,779 → 19,473,921+10,795,142
  • Angola31,783,050 → 37,251,072+5,468,022
  • Kazakhstan3,509,970 → 8,233,212+4,723,242
  • Bolivia1,849,671 → 5,463,578+3,613,908
  • Indonesia717,282 → 2,086,311+1,369,029

Fell most

04Caveats

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 2019.

  • 155 distinct values among 209

    Values are stored exactly as published, to 14 decimals. 52 countries share 0. Countries sharing a value share a position too.

  • Nothing missing

    Every one of the 209 countries has every column.

05The 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-2019-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) (2019). Burned Area, 2019 [data set], describing 2019. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/burned-area/2019

0624 held

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