Compare Disaster History by Country

Choose two countries to compare the earthquakes recorded in each, year by year, from 1976 to 2025, using the US Geological Survey's global catalog.

Canada and India: magnitude 5 or more

The USGS catalog holds 271 earthquakes of magnitude 5 or more located in Canada from 1976 to 2025; the busiest year was 2012, with 32.

The USGS catalog holds 947 earthquakes of magnitude 5 or more located in India from 1976 to 2025; the busiest year was 2004, with 135.

Canada India

Download these yearly counts (CSV)

By decade

YearsCanadaIndia
1976–198540137
1986–199546112
1996–200555310
2006–201588228
2016–202542160
Every year
YearCanadaIndia
1976109
1977013
197866
197997
1980317
198105
198238
1983021
1984238
1985713
1986516
198714
1988711
198947
1990516
1991615
19921010
1993317
1994211
199535
199628
199738
199829
1999210
2000412
20011920
2002411
2003112
200410135
2005885
2006439
2007215
20082231
2009344
2010329
2011410
20123223
2013815
2014313
201579
201617
2017918
2018512
2019916
2020219
2021021
2022314
2023221
2024910
2025222

The largest recorded in each

Canada

Recorded on this site since 21 Jul 2026, every hazard:

Severe Storm 632 · Cold Wave 336 · Extreme Weather 299 · Heavy Rain 108 · Storm Surge 64 · Wildfire 21 · Earthquake 17 · Other Hazard 7 · Tornado 6 · Flood 3 · country page

India

Recorded on this site since 21 Jul 2026, every hazard:

Severe Storm 2,184 · Flood 1,170 · Heavy Rain 1,114 · Earthquake 32 · Extreme Weather 32 · Wildfire 26 · Hurricane / Cyclone / Typhoon 2 · Drought 1 · Cold Wave 1 · country page

How the counts are made

The numbers are earthquakes of magnitude 5 or more in the USGS Comprehensive Earthquake Catalog for complete calendar years. USGS does not record a country for an earthquake; it describes where each one was, such as "25 km ENE of Jalalabad, Afghanistan". An earthquake is counted for a country when that description names it — including "off the coast of" it and "the country region" — or, for the United States, a state. Earthquakes described only by an ocean, a ridge, a sea or a region that is not a country are not given to any country: 23% of the 83,468 earthquakes in these years were left unassigned that way, most of them at sea.

At magnitude 5 and above the global catalog is far more complete than for smaller earthquakes, but its early years still hold fewer than were detected later, so a rise over the decades can be partly better recording.

This is a count of recorded earthquakes, not a ranking of risk. A larger country has more ground for earthquakes to happen under, most magnitude 5 earthquakes cause little or no damage, and a quiet record says nothing certain about the next year. For impacts, see the historical disasters database.

Counts built 13 Sep 2026 from the USGS event web service. Chart: Apache ECharts (Apache License 2.0).

Questions

How are earthquakes assigned to a country?

By the words the US Geological Survey uses for each epicentre, such as "25 km ENE of Jalalabad, Afghanistan". Earthquakes described only by an ocean, a ridge or a region that is not a country are not given to any country: 23% of the catalog in these years.

Does a country with more recorded earthquakes face more risk?

Not necessarily. These are counts of recorded earthquakes, not a ranking of risk: a larger country has more ground for earthquakes to happen under, most magnitude 5 earthquakes cause little or no damage, and a quiet record says nothing certain about the next year.

Can I download the yearly earthquake counts?

Yes. Every comparison has a CSV download with the count for each year for both countries, at the magnitude chosen.