Ozone Layer Recovery Progress in 2024
In 2024, the annual hole in the ozone layer over Earth’s southern pole was relatively small compared to previous years. NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) estimate that, if current trends continue, the ozone layer could fully recover by 2066.

This year’s peak ozone depletion season, which lasts from September 7 to October 13, saw the ozone hole rank as the seventh smallest since recovery efforts began in 1992, following the Montreal Protocol—a global agreement to phase out ozone-depleting chemicals.

The ozone-depleted region over Antarctica averaged nearly 20 million square kilometers (8 million square miles) this year, covering an area almost three times the size of the contiguous United States. On September 28, the hole reached its largest single-day extent of 22.4 million square kilometers (8.5 million square miles).