In 2025, wildfires devastated wealthier regions like California and Europe, despite a global decrease in burned areas. The total area burned was 335 million hectares, the second-lowest since 2002, attributed to changes in African farming practices.
Key points
Wildfires hit wealthier areas in 2025
335 million hectares burned globally, second-lowest since 2002
Scottish megafire burned over 100,000 hectares
Record fires in Spain and Portugal exceeded half a million hectares
Fires caused over 38% of insured weather disaster losses
“Devastating” wildfires ripped across the wealthier parts of the world in 2025, a study has found, even as globally, the area ravaged by flames fell.
Catastrophic blazes claimed lives, homes and jobs last year in California, Canada, Europe and South Korea. But the 335m hectares burned was the second-lowest since 2002, the review found, largely owing to the expansion of African farms that have fragmented landscapes and hampered the spread of large savannah fires.
The disasters in 2025 included a Scottish “megafire” that torched more than 100,000 hectares – contributing to the UK breaking its record for burned area – and the Palisades and Eaton fires in Los Angeles, which were among the most destructive in US history.
Fires accounted for more than 38% of insured losses from weather disasters in 2025, the study found.
“2025 shows that a ‘quiet’ fire year globally can still be devastating,” said Matthew Jones, a climate scientist at the University of East Anglia and lead author of the study. “We are seeing a growing disconnect between total area burned and real-world impacts.”
Wildfire on hills at night
A wildfire roars through Galloway forest park in Scotland on 7 April last year. Photograph: Galloway mountain rescue team/PA
Changes in land use mean wildfires burn less of the planet than they have historically done, but global heating is creating conditions allowing them to spread, increasing the danger at what researchers call the wildland-urban interface, where people are most at risk.
Q&A
What regions experienced the most devastating wildfires in 2025?
In 2025, the most devastating wildfires occurred in California, Canada, Europe, and South Korea.
How many hectares were burned globally in 2025?
In 2025, a total of 335 million hectares were burned, marking the second-lowest area since 2002.
What factors contributed to the decrease in global wildfire area burned?
The decrease in global wildfire area burned is largely due to the expansion of African farms, which fragmented landscapes and hindered the spread of large savannah fires.
What were the financial impacts of wildfires in 2025?
Fires accounted for over 38% of insured losses from weather disasters in 2025.
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Adverse weather, inflamed by carbon pollution, turned some of last year’s fires into explosive infernos.
In southern California and South Korea, the researchers found, high winds and dry vegetation pushed fires through densely populated areas, causing “exceptional mortality, mass evacuations, and major infrastructure losses”. In the Mediterranean, meanwhile, drought and extreme heat drove severe blazes, from Portugal to Turkey.
“These conditions do not cause the fires, but in the event of a fire, we have material that is more flammable than usual – because it is drier – and wind conditions that fan the flames,” said David Garcia, an applied mathematician at the University of Alicante, who was not involved in the study. “This makes large fires more likely to occur.”
Church spire with cross with wildfire roaring through trees at night
Strong winds drive a wildfire towards a church in the city of Andong, South Korea, on 25 March 2025. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images
An attribution study Garcia co-authored last year found the extreme weather fuelling the flames in Portugal and Spain last year was made 39 times more likely by climate breakdown. “If we continue to warm the planet, large-scale fires will continue to increase,” he said.
The overall reduction in global burned area led to a drop in carbon dioxide emissions to their third-lowest level on record.
In Canada, though, extreme wildfire emissions were recorded for the third year in a row. Since 2023, boreal forests in North America have emitted close to 4bn tonnes of CO2, exceeding the total emissions of the preceding 15-year period.
Woman walking along road looking distressed with red sky behind her
A woman walks through the smoke of a forest fire in Macieira, Portugal, on 25 August last year, which spread throughout the Viseu district. Photograph: Pedro Sarmento Costa/EPA
As well as heating the planet, the pollutants in wildfire smoke lead to huge numbers of people dying from breathing dirty air. The toxic particles spewed by Canadian wildfires in 2023 killed 82,000 people, according to a study published in September, with smoke even choking cities in the US, Europe and Africa.
Adrián Regos, a landscape ecologist at the Biological Mission of Galicia, Spain, who was not involved in the study, said last year’s events illustrated how a relatively small number of extreme fires could dominate the ecological, social and economic consequences of an entire fire season.
A wildfire burns through trees on Mount Underwood
A wildfire burns on Mount Underwood near Port Alberni, on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, on 12 August 2025. Photograph: Colby Rex O’Neill/AFP/Getty Images
“The broader pattern highlighted by this study is consistent with what we are observing across southern Europe: while total burned area may fluctuate from year to year, climate change is increasing the likelihood of extreme fire-weather conditions, and fuel accumulation associated with rural abandonment is making many landscapes more vulnerable to large, fast-moving fires,” he said.
“The challenge is therefore not only reducing the number of fires, but increasing the resilience of landscapes and communities to extreme events.”
