Which EU Country Loses the Most Land to Wildfires?

Key Takeaways

• Just 0.4% of recorded wildfires across Mediterranean Europe caused 17.7% of all burnt area between 2008 and 2022.
• Portugal ranks first in the EU for the share of land it loses to wildfires each year. It burns 0.528% of its land annually.
• Greece has the largest average wildfire size of any EU country with recorded wildfires, even though it ranks only fourth for total land burnt. A typical Greek wildfire burns 803 hectares.
• Megafire risk is highest when strong wind, drought-stressed vegetation, and unusually warm nights combine. That risk concentrates most heavily in Portugal and northwestern Spain.
• Germany’s wildfires stay smaller than almost every other EU country’s. They average 106 hectares a year as of August 2026.
• Germany still recorded its highest wildfire area on record in 2025. Longer, hotter, and drier summers are driving fires to grow larger across the EU every year.

Land Burnt and Average Wildfire Size in EU Countries

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Few Wildfires Cause Most of Mediterranean Europe’s Fire Damage

Most wildfires stay small. A rare few grow into what researchers call megafires.

A megafire burns at least 10,000 hectares. That is roughly the size of 14,000 football pitches.

A study tracked 11,403 wildfires across Mediterranean Europe between 2008 and 2022. Only 44 of them qualified as megafires.

Those 44 megafires made up just 0.4% of the total. They still accounted for 17.7% of all the land burnt in the study.

A wildfire turns into a megafire when three conditions align:

• strong wind
• drought-stressed vegetation
• unusually warm nighttime temperatures

Rural land abandonment adds to the risk.

Less farming and land clearing lets vegetation build up as extra fuel. That combination concentrates megafire risk most heavily in Portugal and northwestern Spain.

Sardinia, Greece, and western Turkey are secondary megafire hotspots.

Portugal Loses the Most Land to Wildfires, but Greece’s Fires Grow Biggest

Portugal ranks first in the EU for the share of land it loses to wildfires each year. It burns 0.528% of its land annually.

Portugal’s share is more than four times the EU-27 average of 0.129%. However, its average wildfire size reaches only 184 hectares, rather than rare giant ones.

Greece tells a different story.

Greece ranks only fourth in the EU for total land burnt. Its share is 0.182%.

Greece’s average wildfire size still reaches 803 hectares. Among EU countries with recorded wildfires, that is the highest by a wide margin.

Greece’s high average traces to a small number of extreme events rather than many moderate ones. It sees the same wind, drought, and warm-night combination that drives megafires across the Mediterranean.

Germany’s Wildfires Stay Small, but 2025 Set a Record

Germany’s wildfires burn some of the smallest land areas in the EU. They average 106 hectares.

Only Sweden ranks lower. Its average wildfire size is 86 hectares.

Germany also sits in the middle of the EU ranking for total land burnt. It burns 0.019% of its land annually.

Germany’s share of land burnt ranks 14th out of 27 member states. Even so, Germany was not immune to 2025’s record fire season.

Germany recorded its highest total wildfire area on record in 2025. Spain, Cyprus, and Slovakia did too.

The EU’s entire 2025 fire season burned just over 1 million hectares. It was the worst season on record.

A single heatwave in August 2025 accounted for much of that total on its own. It triggered 22 simultaneous fires across Portugal and Spain in about three weeks.

Those 22 fires burned 460,585 hectares. That was 43% of the EU’s entire 2025 total.

By August 5, 2026, wildfires had already burned more EU land than by the same date in 2025. Longer, hotter, and drier summers keep extending the fire season each year.