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Top 10 Largest Deserts in the World

Deserts are defined by how little rain falls, not by heat — which is why the polar regions top this list.

  • Updated 1 h ago
  • 📏 Ranked by area
  • 🔄 Refreshed monthly
  • 📚 Source: Wikipedia (verified by hand)

  1. Antarctic Desert

    Antarctica

    14,200,000 km²

    No change

  2. Arctic Desert

    Arctic

    13,900,000 km²

    No change

  3. Sahara

    North Africa

    9,200,000 km²

    No change
  1. 4Great Australian DesertAustralia2,700,000 km²No change
  2. 5Arabian DesertMiddle East2,330,000 km²No change
  3. 6Gobi DesertChina / Mongolia1,295,000 km²No change
  4. 7Kalahari DesertSouthern Africa900,000 km²No change
  5. 8Patagonian DesertArgentina / Chile673,000 km²No change
  6. 9Syrian DesertMiddle East520,000 km²No change
  7. 10Great Basin DesertUSA492,000 km²No change

How this list is ranked

Area of the desert region, using the precipitation-based definition of a desert.

Data from Wikipedia (verified by hand), refreshed monthly. Arrows show how each entry moved since the previous update.

Sources

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