Which country has the most volcanoes in the world?

According to the National Museum of Natural History’s Global Volcanism Program, there are more than 1,500 volcanoes on the planet that have erupted at some point in the last 11,500 years, the current geological epoch otherwise known as the Holocene period.

The majority of these are found in clusters, or strips, mostly following the faultlines of the world’s tectonic plates. For this reason, mapping the world’s volcanoes according to country is slightly misleading, as most are linked to the same geological highway.

The 10 countries with the most volcanoes

United States - 173

Russia - 166

Indonesia - 139

Japan - 112

Chile - 104

Ethiopia - 57

Papua New Guinea - 53

Philippines - 50

Mexico - 43

Argentina - 39

The "Ring of Fire" that encircles the Pacific Ocean – which stretches up the west coast of the Americas, around and across to Asia, looping down to the east of Japan, before overwhelming much of Indonesia and the Philippines and whipping around Australasia – boasts the most, with 452.