As of August 1, 2026, wildfires and landscape fires have burned 112.3 million hectares of land across the globe, an area roughly the size of South Africa.
This visualization, via Visual Capitalist's Sofie Gilbert, uses data from the Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS) via Our World in Data to show where that burning is concentrated in 2026 as of August 1.
The data includes prescribed burns, agricultural burns, and uncontrolled wildfires.
Africa Is the Epicenter of Global Fire Activity
More than half of the world’s burned land so far in 2026 is in Africa.
The data table below shows the land area burned for every country as of August 1, 2026:
RankCountry or TerritoryArea Burned in Hectares(YTD to Aug 1, 2026)ShareRegion 1🇨🇩 Democratic Republic of Congo13,611,12612.1%Africa 2🇦🇺 Australia11,801,65010.5%Oceania 3🇦🇴 Angola7,473,0346.7%Africa 4🇸🇸 South Sudan6,955,0226.2%Africa 5🇨🇫 Central African Republic6,017,8815.4%Africa 6🇲🇲 Myanmar4,325,7023.9%Asia 7🇮🇳 India4,029,7043.6%Asia 8🇷🇺 Russia3,335,0293.0%Europe 9🇬🇳 Guinea3,250,9922.9%Africa 10🇿🇲 Zambia3,213,6872.9%Africa 11🇻🇪 Venezuela2,977,4662.7%South America 12🇳🇬 Nigeria2,807,2002.5%Africa 13🇹🇭 Thailand2,669,5502.4%Asia 14🇱🇦 Laos2,641,3212.4%Asia 15🇺🇸 United States2,371,2072.1%North America 16🇨🇳 China2,265,0572.0%Asia 17🇨🇦 Canada2,031,7541.8%North America 18🇧🇷 Brazil2,030,2091.8%South America 19🇪🇹 Ethiopia1,851,1311.6%Africa 20🇬🇭 Ghana1,763,3951.6%Africa 21🇰🇭 Cambodia1,525,3121.4%Asia 22🇲🇱 Mali1,490,6981.3%Africa 23🇨🇲 Cameroon1,435,3731.3%Africa 24🇹🇩 Chad1,309,1551.2%A
