2025 Wildfires Become Costliest Year on Record, Study Finds

A new analysis published in Nature Reviews Earth & Environment finds that 2025 was the costliest year on record for wildfires worldwide, accounting for 38% of all insured natural‑hazard losses. Although the total area burned was the second‑lowest since 2002, extreme fires in populated regions drove severe human and economic impacts.

In the United States, the Palisades and Eaton fires near Los Angeles in January killed 31 people, destroyed nearly 12,000 homes and caused $140 bn in total losses (about $40 bn insured), prompting over 150,000 evacuations and exposing 10 million residents to hazardous smoke. South Korea experienced its deadliest wildfire outbreak, with more than 100,000 hectares burned, 32 deaths and tens of thousands displaced. Across Europe, major fires in Spain, Portugal, Greece, Turkey, Cyprus and France forced about 120,000 evacuations and resulted in at least 28 deaths.

Overall, the study reports more than 300,000 evacuations and over 90 fatalities globally. Researchers attribute the shift to climate‑driven droughts, heatwaves and extreme winds, which concentrate fire risk in temperate and high‑latitude forests and increase exposure at the wildland‑urban interface. Lead author Matthew Jones of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research calls for rapid fossil‑fuel emission cuts and stronger adaptation measures, including proactive vegetation management, to curb escalating wildfire threats.