Five years of the USGS record

Earthquake statistics: which state and country has the most?

Alaska has the most earthquakes of any U.S. state in our five-year record: 31,589 earthquakes of magnitude 2.5 or larger, about 6,318 a year. Counting magnitude 4.5 and above, the level at which the record is complete worldwide, Indonesia has had the most earthquakes of any country: 4,112 in five years. In 2025, the last full year, USGS recorded 29,227 earthquakes of magnitude 2.5 or larger worldwide, 2,130 of them magnitude 5 or larger.

01 — Per year

Earthquakes per year worldwide

Earthquakes worldwide by year and magnitude, M2.5 and above
Year	M2.5+	M5+	M6+	M7+
2021	6,636	420	40	4
2022	26,911	1,726	127	11
2023	27,301	1,780	147	19
2024	25,153	1,507	99	10
2025	29,227	2,130	145	16
2026	23,897	1,673	120	15

Our record starts in late 2021 and the current year is incomplete, so the first and last rows are partial. Counts come from USGS; recent magnitudes can still be revised.

Fig. 1Earthquakes per month worldwide, M2.5+

57,555 earthquakes of magnitude 2.5 or larger worldwide in the last 24 months. The busiest month was Jul 2025, with 4,179.

02 — U.S. states

U.S. states ranked by earthquakes

U.S. states ranked by earthquakes of magnitude 2.5 and above in the last five years
#	State	Last 5 years	Per year	Last year	Strongest
1	Alaska	31,589	6,318	8,798	M7.3
2	California	5,228	1,046	1,069	M7.0
3	Hawaii	3,141	628	308	M6.0
4	Texas	1,871	374	282	M5.4
5	New Mexico	1,618	324	333	M5.4
6	Nevada	1,036	207	344	M5.7
7	Wyoming	1,016	203	197	M4.7
8	Oregon	746	149	130	M6.0
9	Idaho	497	99	34	M4.9
10	Oklahoma	273	55	41	M5.1
11	Montana	215	43	32	M4.2
12	Utah	211	42	60	M4.5
13	Washington	192	38	58	M4.5
14	Kansas	191	38	26	M4.3
15	Colorado	115	23	32	M4.3
16	Arizona	61	12	5	M4.4
17	Missouri	48	10	7	M4.0
18	Louisiana	40	8	24	M4.9
19	Tennessee	37	7	3	M4.1
20	Minnesota	31	6	3	M3.3

03 — Countries

Countries ranked by earthquakes (M4.5+)

Countries are compared at magnitude 4.5 and above because the USGS catalogue is complete worldwide only from that size. Smaller earthquakes are detected far more thoroughly in places like the United States and Japan, which would unfairly inflate them.

Countries ranked by earthquakes of magnitude 4.5 and above in the last five years
#	Country	Last 5 years	Per year	Last year	Strongest
1	Indonesia	4,112	822	1,081	M7.8
2	Philippines	2,560	512	612	M7.8
3	Japan	2,179	436	571	M7.6
4	Russia	1,903	381	368	M8.8
5	Papua New Guinea	1,711	342	281	M7.6
6	Tonga	889	178	121	M7.5
7	Chile	810	162	155	M7.4
8	China	667	133	187	M7.0
9	Vanuatu	563	113	122	M7.3
10	Peru	559	112	90	M7.5
11	Taiwan	548	110	47	M7.4
12	Mexico	486	97	148	M7.6
13	Argentina	437	87	73	M7.4
14	Guam	365	73	54	M6.0
15	Türkiye	329	66	34	M7.8
16	Greece	319	64	62	M6.2
17	Samoa	291	58	70	M6.8
18	India	271	54	40	M5.9
19	Solomon Islands	263	53	42	M7.0
20	Iran	260	52	39	M6.4

04 — Questions

Earthquake statistics, answered

Which U.S. state has the most earthquakes?

Alaska. It had 31,589 earthquakes of magnitude 2.5 or larger in the last five years, 8,798 of them in the last 12 months. The Pacific Plate slides under North America along Alaska’s coast, which is why Alaska has far more earthquakes than any other state, followed by California and Hawaii. Texas and New Mexico also rank high because of earthquakes linked to oil and gas wastewater disposal.

How many earthquakes happen each year?

USGS estimates about 15 earthquakes of magnitude 7 or larger and roughly 1,300 of magnitude 5 to 5.9 each year, and many hundreds of thousands too small to feel. In 2025, our record shows 29,227 of magnitude 2.5 or larger worldwide.

Which country has the most earthquakes?

By earthquakes of magnitude 4.5 and above, Indonesia leads our five-year record with 4,112. Indonesia, Japan, Papua New Guinea, Chile and Fiji sit on the Pacific Ring of Fire or neighbouring subduction zones, where most of the world's large earthquakes occur.

How is each earthquake assigned to a state or country?

U.S. states use the state USGS names in each earthquake’s location. Countries use the nearest listed city within 300 km of the epicentre, and open-ocean earthquakes with no city in range are left out. State counts are magnitude 2.5 and above; country counts are magnitude 4.5 and above so that countries with different seismograph coverage compare fairly. See the methodology.