{"chart":{"slug":"earthquakes-by-magnitude","title":"How much rarer is each step up in earthquake magnitude?","takeaway":"In 2025 the world recorded 6,428 earthquakes of magnitude 4.5 to 4.9, 1,983 of magnitude 5, 129 of magnitude 6, 15 of magnitude 7 and 1 of magnitude 8 or more. Each step up in magnitude is roughly ten times rarer, and releases about 32 times more energy. Countless smaller quakes go unrecorded worldwide, so the chart starts at 4.5.","topic":"Earthquakes","chart_type":"bar","ranking":false,"x_label":"Magnitude","y_label":"Earthquakes worldwide in the year","unit":null,"points_count":5,"source":{"name":"U.S. Geological Survey, ANSS Comprehensive Earthquake Catalog (ComCat)","url":"https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/search/"},"license":{"name":"Public domain (U.S. government work); source U.S. Geological Survey","url":"https://www.usgs.gov/information-policies-and-instructions/copyrights-and-credits"},"data_as_of":"2025-12-31","updated_at":"2026-09-25T11:40:45.451Z","url":"https://chart.ly/charts/earthquakes-by-magnitude","api_url":"https://chart.ly/api/v1/charts/earthquakes-by-magnitude","csv_url":"https://chart.ly/charts/earthquakes-by-magnitude/data.csv","image_url":"https://chart.ly/charts/earthquakes-by-magnitude/image.png","embed_url":"https://chart.ly/charts/earthquakes-by-magnitude/embed","credit":"U.S. Geological Survey, ANSS Comprehensive Earthquake Catalog (ComCat), via Chartly (https://chart.ly/charts/earthquakes-by-magnitude)","credit_html":"U.S. Geological Survey, ANSS Comprehensive Earthquake Catalog (ComCat), via \u003ca href=\"https://chart.ly/charts/earthquakes-by-magnitude\"\u003eChartly\u003c/a\u003e","average_label":null,"zero_axis":true,"data":[{"label":"4.5 to 4.9","value":6428},{"label":"5.0 to 5.9","value":1983},{"label":"6.0 to 6.9","value":129},{"label":"7.0 to 7.9","value":15},{"label":"8.0 or more","value":1}],"annotations":[]},"docs":"https://chart.ly/developers","terms":"Free to use with credit: wherever you show or quote a chart's data, name Chartly with a link to that chart's url (each chart's credit line does both) and credit its source as its license asks.","credit":"U.S. Geological Survey, ANSS Comprehensive Earthquake Catalog (ComCat), via Chartly (https://chart.ly/charts/earthquakes-by-magnitude)"}