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.

Italy and India: magnitude 5 or more

The USGS catalog holds 128 earthquakes of magnitude 5 or more located in Italy from 1976 to 2025; the busiest year was 1976, with 21.

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.

Italy India

Download these yearly counts (CSV)

By decade

YearsItalyIndia
1976–198547137
1986–199512112
1996–200526310
2006–201524228
2016–202519160
Every year
YearItalyIndia
1976219
1977513
197846
197957
1980417
198105
198208
1983421
1984438
1985013
1986016
198724
1988011
198907
1990316
1991215
1992110
1993117
1994211
199515
199618
199768
199849
1999010
2000212
2001120
2002611
2003212
20043135
2005185
2006239
2007115
2008331
2009644
2010129
2011010
2012823
2013315
2014013
201509
201667
2017418
2018212
2019016
2020019
2021121
2022114
2023221
2024110
2025222

The largest recorded in each

Italy

In this site's historical database:

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

Severe Storm 631 · Heavy Rain 289 · Extreme Weather 32 · Wildfire 10 · Earthquake 7 · Cold Wave 6 · Heatwave 5 · Volcanic Activity 2 · Flood 1 · 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.