The World's Largest Desert

A desert is a landscape or region that receives very little precipitation - less than 250 mm per year (about ten inches). Approximately 1/3 of Earth's land surface is a desert.

The largest areas on Earth that fit this definition are the polar regions. Antarctica has a surface area of about 14 million square kilometers (5.5 million square miles), making it the largest desert in the world.

The largest non-polar desert is the Sahara Desert of northern Africa. The Sahara has a surface area of 9 million square kilometers (3.5 million square miles), and it stands as the largest non-polar desert in the world. See our Google map of the Sahara Desert to learn more about this interesting environment.

World Desert Map (non-polar deserts)

Enlarge the World Desert Map - Image by USGS

Major Deserts of the World
Name	Type of Desert	Surface Area	Location
Antarctic	Polar	5.5 million mi²	Antarctica
Arctic	Polar	5.4 million mi²	Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia
Sahara (map)	Subtropical	3.5 million mi²	Northern Africa
Arabian (map)	Subtropical	1 million mi²	Arabian Peninsula
Gobi	Cold Winter	500,000 mi²	China and Mongolia
Patagonian (map)	Cold Winter	260,000 mi²	Argentina
Great Victoria	Subtropical	250,000 mi²	Australia
Kalahari (map)	Subtropical	220,000 mi²	South Africa, Botswana, Namibia
Great Basin (map)	Cold Winter	190,000 mi²	United States
Thar (map)	Subtropical	175,000 mi²	India, Pakistan
Chihuahuan (map)	Subtropical	175,000 mi²	Mexico
Great Sandy (map)	Subtropical	150,000 mi²	Australia
Kara-Kum (map)	Cold Winter	135,000 mi²	Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan
Colorado Plateau	Cold Winter	130,000 mi²	United States
Gibson	Subtropical	120,000 mi²	Australia
Sonoran (map)	Subtropical	120,000 mi²	United States, Mexico
Kyzyl-Kum	Cold Winter	115,000 mi²	Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan
Taklamakan (map)	Cold Winter	105,000 mi²	China
Iranian	Cold Winter	100,000 mi²	Iran
Simpson (map)	Subtropical	56,000 mi²	Australia
Mojave (map)	Subtropical	54,000 mi²	United States
Atacama (map)	Cool Coastal	54,000 mi²	Chile
Namib (map)	Cool Coastal	13,000 mi²	Angola, Namibia, South Africa

World's Records - Related Information
	Deepest Point in the Ocean World's Largest Lake World's Highest Waterfall World's Deepest Lake World's Largest Desert

Jul	AUG	Sep
	17
2006	2007	2008

The World's Largest Desert

World Desert Map (non-polar deserts)

Major Deserts of the World

World's Records - Related Information