The Burrow
Mar 18, 2025
House fires can be started by all manner of sources, but once the building catches, the whole home can be alight in just a few minutes.
It’s a concerning scenario, but how common is a building fire?
As home and contents insurance experts, we wanted to see how many house and building fires there were in five different countries across the globe, and what the rates per capita were.
Here are the results.
Of the data considered, surprisingly, the country with the highest number of structure fires per capita was neighbours with the country that had the least. The USA has 110.91 structure fires per 100,000 in comparison to Canada’s 38.18 per capita.
The UK had the next highest number of fires at 91.59 per capita.* New Zealand had the third highest rate of 67.70 structure fires per capita, while Australia was fourth at 46.61 per 100,000 – less than half of that of America’s.
Canada’s building fire rate was quite low, a little over half of the rate of New Zealand.
In Canada, there were 15,986 structure fires for the calendar year – but the rate per capita would be even lower if it was based solely on residential fires. Of those 15,986 structural fires, only 10,819 were residential buildings.
That would be a rate of 25.84 residential structural fires per capita. However, as not all other jurisdictions had a breakdown for residential fires, comparable statistics were used instead.
| Location | Structure fires per capita |
| USA | 110.91 |
| UK | 91.59* |
| New Zealand | 67.70 |
| Australia^ | 46.61 |
| Canada | 38.18 |
* The number of structure fires for the UK uses statistics defined by the UK Home Office as primary fires. Primary fires are based on occupied building, outdoor structure and vehicle fires that involve casualties or people who are rescued. Criteria for these fires also requires at least five pumping appliances to be deployed.
^ Australia’s figure is based on all states and territories except the Australian Capital Territory.
Note: stats were sourced from before the California wildfires of 2025.
There are various reasons why a fire might start. These reasons can also differ slightly based on region. In Australia, many house fires are caused by unattended cooking or electrical faults – typically an overloaded circuit.1 In the USA, the leading causes of fire were cooking fires, followed by heating fires, unintentional or careless fires, and electrical malfunctions were the least common cause.2
In Canada, smoking is one of the leading causes alongside cooking and electrical-based fires.3 In the UK, cooking fires account for almost half of all residential house fires.4
Recommended fire safety tips include:
Home and contents insurance can cover financial loss and damage from almost all fire incidents, except for one scenario. Compare the Market’s Executive General Manager of General Insurance, Adrian Taylor, explains.
“Home and contents insurance is fairly inclusive when it comes to fire events, as it’s designed to cover the most commonly occurring instances. Many house fires, though preventable, are usually still be covered by insurance policies that include coverage for fire incidents,” says Mr Taylor.
“There is one scenario that is never covered – and that is deliberate arson by yourself, as this is an act of insurance fraud. If someone else attempts to burn your house down in a criminal act, that can be covered, but if you were involved in any way, the insurer will reject your claim and you could face legal consequences.”
When it comes to staying safe, Taylor encourages people to use common sense and see what tips their local state fire department has.
“Local firefighters may have some specific, seasonal tips that could be very useful. Otherwise, making sure you don’t leave a fire unattended, as well as keeping your electronics well maintained can help prevent a fire incident in your home and keep you safe.”
Data for structure fires within each country was compared against population data to get a number of structure fires per capita using the latest available data for each nation. Data for Australia was based on the cumulative total of all state and territories apart from the Australian Capital Territory.
The sources are listed below.
Structure fire number sources:
Population sources:
References: