How often do earthquakes occur?

Earthquakes happen daily across the United States, though they vary in magnitude. For instance, the United States had 3,836 earthquakes in 2012, but only five of them were above six on the Richter scale, and none of them exceeded seven.

From 2000 to 2012, the number of earthquakes per year in the United States ranged from 2,261 (2001) to 8,496 (2010). Only eight earthquakes during that time period were eight or above on the Richter scale. In the same time period, the number of earthquakes ranged from 14,825 (2009) to 32,419 (2003) worldwide. On average, at least one earthquake happens per day across the globe; for instance, even the lower number from 2009 still equals an average of about 41 earthquakes per day, or 1.7 per hour.