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Data

Number of significant volcanic eruptions

NOAA/NCEI
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Natural Disasters

What you should know about this indicator

A significant eruption must meet at least one of the following criteria: caused fatalities, caused moderate damage (approximately $1 million or more), had a Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI) of 6 or greater, generated a tsunami, or was associated with a significant earthquake.

Source
National Geophysical Data Center / World Data Service (2025) – with major processing by Our World in Data
Last updated
October 30, 2025
Next expected update
October 2026
Date range
4360 BCE – 2024 CE
Unit
events

Sources and processing

This data is based on the following sources

National Geophysical Data Center / World Data Service – Significant Volcanic Eruptions Database

The Significant Volcanic Eruptions Database is a global listing of over 600 eruptions from 4360 BC to the present. A significant eruption is classified as one that meets at least one of the following criteria: caused fatalities, caused moderate damage (approximately $1 million or more), Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI) of 6 or greater, generated a tsunami, or was associated with a significant earthquake. The database provides information on the latitude, longitude, elevation, type of volcano, last known eruption, VEI index, and socio-economic data such as the total number of casualties, injuries, houses destroyed, and houses damaged, and $ dollar damage estimates. References, political geography, and additional comments are also provided for each eruption. If the eruption was associated with a tsunami or significant earthquake, it is flagged and linked to the related database. For a complete list of current and past activity for all volcanoes on the planet active during the last 10,000 years, please see Smithsonian Institution's Global Volcanism Program (GVP).

Retrieved on
October 30, 2025
Retrieved from
http://dx.doi.org/10.7289/V5JW8BSH
Citation
This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data. To cite data downloaded from this page, please use the suggested citation given in Reuse This Work below.
National Geophysical Data Center / World Data Service (NGDC/WDS): NCEI/WDS Global Significant Volcanic Eruptions Database. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information. doi:10.7289/V5JW8BSH
The data can be accessed via the NCEI/WDS Global Significant Volcanic Eruptions Database or via the Natural Hazards API.

The Significant Volcanic Eruptions Database is a global listing of over 600 eruptions from 4360 BC to the present. A significant eruption is classified as one that meets at least one of the following criteria: caused fatalities, caused moderate damage (approximately $1 million or more), Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI) of 6 or greater, generated a tsunami, or was associated with a significant earthquake. The database provides information on the latitude, longitude, elevation, type of volcano, last known eruption, VEI index, and socio-economic data such as the total number of casualties, injuries, houses destroyed, and houses damaged, and $ dollar damage estimates. References, political geography, and additional comments are also provided for each eruption. If the eruption was associated with a tsunami or significant earthquake, it is flagged and linked to the related database. For a complete list of current and past activity for all volcanoes on the planet active during the last 10,000 years, please see Smithsonian Institution's Global Volcanism Program (GVP).

Retrieved on
October 30, 2025
Retrieved from
http://dx.doi.org/10.7289/V5JW8BSH
Citation
This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data. To cite data downloaded from this page, please use the suggested citation given in Reuse This Work below.
National Geophysical Data Center / World Data Service (NGDC/WDS): NCEI/WDS Global Significant Volcanic Eruptions Database. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information. doi:10.7289/V5JW8BSH
The data can be accessed via the NCEI/WDS Global Significant Volcanic Eruptions Database or via the Natural Hazards API.

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All data and visualizations on Our World in Data rely on data sourced from one or several original data providers. Preparing this original data involves several processing steps. Depending on the data, this can include standardizing country names and world region definitions, converting units, calculating derived indicators such as per capita measures, as well as adding or adapting metadata such as the name or the description given to an indicator.

At the link below you can find a detailed description of the structure of our data pipeline, including links to all the code used to prepare data across Our World in Data.

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Citations

How to cite this page

To cite this page overall, including any descriptions, FAQs or explanations of the data authored by Our World in Data, please use the following citation:

“Data Page: Number of significant volcanic eruptions”, part of the following publication: Hannah Ritchie, Pablo Rosado, and Max Roser (2022) - “Natural Disasters”. Data adapted from National Geophysical Data Center / World Data Service. Retrieved from https://archive.ourworldindata.org/20260304-094028/grapher/significant-volcanic-eruptions.html [online resource] (archived on March 4, 2026).

How to cite this data

In-line citationIf you have limited space (e.g. in data visualizations), you can use this abbreviated in-line citation:

National Geophysical Data Center / World Data Service (2025) – with major processing by Our World in Data

Full citation

National Geophysical Data Center / World Data Service (2025) – with major processing by Our World in Data. “Number of significant volcanic eruptions – NOAA/NCEI” [dataset]. National Geophysical Data Center / World Data Service, “Significant Volcanic Eruptions Database” [original data]. Retrieved April 1, 2026 from https://archive.ourworldindata.org/20260304-094028/grapher/significant-volcanic-eruptions.html (archived on March 4, 2026).

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Data API

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Data URL (CSV format)
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/significant-volcanic-eruptions.csv?v=1&csvType=full&useColumnShortNames=false
Metadata URL (JSON format)
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/significant-volcanic-eruptions.metadata.json?v=1&csvType=full&useColumnShortNames=false

Code examples

Examples of how to load this data into different data analysis tools.

Excel / Google Sheets
=IMPORTDATA("https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/significant-volcanic-eruptions.csv?v=1&csvType=full&useColumnShortNames=false")
Python with Pandas
import pandas as pd
import requests

# Fetch the data.
df = pd.read_csv("https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/significant-volcanic-eruptions.csv?v=1&csvType=full&useColumnShortNames=false", storage_options = {'User-Agent': 'Our World In Data data fetch/1.0'})

# Fetch the metadata
metadata = requests.get("https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/significant-volcanic-eruptions.metadata.json?v=1&csvType=full&useColumnShortNames=false").json()
R
library(jsonlite)

# Fetch the data
df <- read.csv("https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/significant-volcanic-eruptions.csv?v=1&csvType=full&useColumnShortNames=false")

# Fetch the metadata
metadata <- fromJSON("https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/significant-volcanic-eruptions.metadata.json?v=1&csvType=full&useColumnShortNames=false")
Stata
import delimited "https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/significant-volcanic-eruptions.csv?v=1&csvType=full&useColumnShortNames=false", encoding("utf-8") clear