How many earthquakes are recorded worldwide each year?

Seismographs recorded 8,556 earthquakes of magnitude 4.5 or more around the world in 2025, nearly three times the 2,987 of 1973, when the U.S. Geological Survey's modern catalog begins. Much of that rise comes from more and better sensors catching smaller quakes, not from more earthquakes: the count of magnitude 6 or more has stayed between about 80 and 210 a year.

The interactive chart needs JavaScript. The numbers are in the table below.

The value axis starts at zero. Hover, tap or use the arrow keys to read exact values.

Save a simple drawing of this chart for slides, essays or posts, with its question, source, date and a link back to this page. Please keep the credit.

Download image

Key facts

Measure: Earthquakes of magnitude 4.5 or more. Written from the data below.

  • The latest figure, for 2025, is 8,556.
  • That is 2.9 times the 1973 figure, 2,987.
  • The highest was 9,584 in 2011.
  • The lowest was 2,987 in 1973.

Source and date

Source
U.S. Geological Survey, ANSS Comprehensive Earthquake Catalog (ComCat)
License
Public domain (U.S. government work); source U.S. Geological Survey
Data as of
Published

Citation

Chartly. “How many earthquakes are recorded worldwide each year?” Chart. Data: U.S. Geological Survey, ANSS Comprehensive Earthquake Catalog (ComCat), https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/search/ (data as of December 31, 2025). https://chart.ly/charts/earthquakes-recorded-per-year (accessed October 15, 2026).

Free for your article, blog or class page: paste this code where the chart should go. It shows the interactive chart with its source and a small “Chart by Chartly” credit, and stays up to date when the data changes.

The data

Download data (CSV)

The file has the numbers in this table, with the source, license and date. Please credit the source and Chartly.

Year Earthquakes of magnitude 4.5 or more
1973 2,987
1974 3,059
1975 3,313
1976 3,596
1977 3,580
1978 3,307
1979 3,288
1980 3,485
1981 3,261
1982 3,539
1983 4,093
1984 4,083
1985 4,549
1986 4,505
1987 3,986
1988 3,983
1989 3,992
1990 4,418
1991 4,089
1992 4,388
1993 4,188
1994 4,198
1995 4,694
1996 4,671
1997 4,588
1998 3,801
1999 4,067
2000 5,010
2001 4,680
2002 4,963
2003 5,135
2004 6,183
2005 7,878
2006 7,075
2007 7,274
2008 6,307
2009 6,053
2010 7,214
2011 9,584
2012 7,188
2013 7,209
2014 8,333
2015 7,153
2016 7,438
2017 6,371
2018 7,509
2019 7,211
2020 6,510
2021 8,959
2022 7,765
2023 7,643
2024 6,397
2025 8,556

Get new charts weekly

One email a week with the newest charts and their key numbers. No account needed.