The monthly GFED5 burned area data produced in this study are available in netCDF files. For years between 2001 and 2020, five layers of burned area (Norm: normal type, Crop: cropland burning, Defo: deforestation burning, Peat: peatland burning, Total: the sum of all burning) are provided at 0.25°×0.25° resolution. The ‘Norm’ layer contains burned areas in each grid cell (in km²) separated by 17 major land cover types. For the pre-MODIS era (1997-2000), only the ‘Total’ burned area layer with reduced spatial resolution (1°×1°) is provided. We also provide two global maps of burnable area (with water and snow/ice cover excluded) in each grid cell (0.25°×0.25° for the MODIS era and 1°×1° for the pre-MODIS era). Please refer to readme.html or readme.pdf for more detail about the dataset.