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This year, the ozone hole over Antarctica reached its annual maximum extent on September 9th, 2025, with an area of 8.83 million square miles (22.86 million square kilometers.)

The average size of the ozone hole between September 7 and October 13 this year was the 5th-smallest since 1992— when the Montreal Protocol began to take effect.

NASA and NOAA previously ranked ozone hole severity using a time frame dating back to 1979, when scientists began tracking Antarctic ozone levels with satellites. Using that longer record, this year’s hole area ranked 14th smallest over 46 years of observations.

The annual maximum extent of the ozone hole can vary year to year due to weather, but the multi-decadal record shows that the ozone layer appears to be slowly recovering and is on track to rebound by later this century.