Oceans are getting warmer - but what were their temperatures 100 years ago?

Jun 14, 2022

With the collaboration of Statista.

The year with the biggest divergence on record was 2016 when measured ocean surface temperatures were 0.8 degrees Celsius higher than the stated average. Image: Unsplash/Anastasia Taioglou

Katharina Buchholz

Data Journalist, Statista

Our Impact

What's the World Economic Forum doing to accelerate action on Nature and Biodiversity?

The Big Picture

Explore and monitor how Climate Indicators is affecting economies, industries and global issues

A hand holding a looking glass by a lake

Crowdsource Innovation

Get involved with our crowdsourced digital platform to deliver impact at scale

Stay up to date:

Climate Indicators

In 2021, global ocean surface temperatures were 0.65 degrees Celsius higher than the 20th century average.
The year with the biggest divergence was 2016 when measured ocean surface temperatures were 0.8 degrees Celsius higher than average.
An increase in the number of years that are warmer on average is expected due to climate change.

Annual average temperatures of the oceans’ surfaces have been diverging from the 20th century (1900-1999) average more and more since the 1980s. In 2021, global ocean surface temperatures were 0.65 degrees Celsius higher than that century’s average, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Ocean surface temperature is rising fast

While the annual divergence fluctuates (as some years happen to be hotter and others colder), there is still a definite upwards trend visible in the data. The year with the biggest divergence on record was 2016 when measured ocean surface temperatures were 0.8 degrees Celsius higher than the stated average.

Discover

What's the World Economic Forum doing about the ocean?

Our ocean covers 70% of the world’s surface and accounts for 80% of the planet’s biodiversity. We can't have a healthy future without a healthy ocean - but it's more vulnerable than ever because of climate change and pollution.

Tackling the grave threats to our ocean means working with leaders across sectors, from business to government to academia.

The World Economic Forum convenes the Friends of Ocean Action, a coalition of global leaders from a wide range of sectors who are working together to protect the seas. From a programme to scale blue carbon benefits through coordinated action with governments to unlock finance, strengthen and empower local communities, to a global partnership to catalyze science-based actions towards healthy and sustainable blue food value chains, the Forum’s Ocean Action Agenda is pushing for new solutions and aiming to support 1000 Ocean Startups by 2030 that are creating a wave of innovation to address global challenges.

The Forum's Ocean Action Agenda also works closely with our industry partners, such as offshore wind developers and ports, to support them in their transitions towards a nature positive and net zero future. Climate change is an inextricable part of the threat to our ocean, with rising temperatures and acidification disrupting fragile ecosystems. The Forum runs a number of initiatives to support the shift to a low-carbon economy, including hosting the Alliance of CEO Climate Leaders, who have cut emissions in their companies by 9%.

Is your organization interested in working with the World Economic Forum? Find out more here.

The global data for near-surface temperatures come from ships, buoys and satellite measurements of the oceans. While fluctuations are a normal phenomenon, an increase of the number of years that are warmer on average is expected due to climate change, which is the increase in global average and mean land and ocean surface temperatures. According to scientific findings, the continuing global warming will lead to changes in the strength, frequency, spatial extent and duration of extreme weather events.

This chart shows global ocean surface temperatures from 1880 to 2021 as a divergence from the 20th century average.

The ocean surface temperature is warming at an alarming rate. Image: NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information

Have you read?

Don't miss any update on this topic

Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.