Mapped: 15 Largest Deserts in the World (2025)

When most people think of deserts, they picture scorching sand dunes — but the two largest deserts on Earth are actually freezing cold. The Antarctic Ice Sheet and the Arctic Desert together cover over 28 million km², dwarfing the Sahara. A desert is defined by precipitation, not temperature: any region receiving less than 250mm of rain per year qualifies, regardless of how hot or cold it gets.

Below, we rank the 15 largest deserts in the world, from polar ice sheets to blistering subtropical wastelands, map their locations, and explore what makes each one unique.

Map: Largest Deserts in the World

World map showing the 15 largest deserts — The 15 largest deserts in the world by area. Map: mappr.co

Key Takeaways

Antarctica is the world’s largest desert at 14.2 million km² — it receives less than 51mm of precipitation per year, making it drier than the Sahara.
The Sahara (9.2 million km²) is the world’s largest hot desert — roughly the size of the United States or China.
Cold deserts (polar + temperate) actually cover more total area than hot deserts, challenging the common misconception that deserts must be hot.
Deserts cover about one-third of Earth’s land surface — approximately 50 million km² combined.
The Sahara is expanding — it has grown by roughly 10% since 1920 due to climate change and desertification.

Complete Rankings: 15 Largest Deserts

Rank	Desert	Type	Area (km²)	Area (mi²)	Location
1	Antarctic Ice Sheet	Polar	14,200,000	5,482,651	🇦🇶 Antarctica
2	Arctic Desert	Polar	13,900,000	5,366,820	Arctic (multiple countries)
3	Sahara	Subtropical	9,200,000	3,552,140	🌍 North Africa
4	Great Australian Desert	Subtropical	2,700,000	1,042,476	🇦🇺 Australia
5	Arabian Desert	Subtropical	2,330,000	899,618	🇸🇦 Middle East
6	Gobi Desert	Cold winter	1,295,000	500,002	🇲🇳 Mongolia / 🇨🇳 China
7	Kalahari Desert	Subtropical	900,000	347,492	🇧🇼 Southern Africa
8	Patagonian Desert	Cold winter	673,000	259,847	🇦🇷 Argentina
9	Syrian Desert	Subtropical	500,000	193,051	🇸🇾 Middle East
10	Great Basin Desert	Cold winter	492,000	189,962	🇺🇸 United States
11	Chihuahuan Desert	Subtropical	450,000	173,746	🇲🇽 Mexico / 🇺🇸 USA
12	Karakum Desert	Cold winter	350,000	135,136	🇹🇲 Turkmenistan
13	Colorado Plateau	Cold winter	337,000	130,116	🇺🇸 United States
14	Sonoran Desert	Subtropical	310,000	119,691	🇺🇸 USA / 🇲🇽 Mexico
15	Kyzylkum Desert	Cold winter	298,000	115,058	🇺🇿 Uzbekistan / 🇰🇿 Kazakhstan

1. Antarctic Ice Sheet (Polar Desert) 🇦🇶

The Antarctic Ice Sheet is the world’s largest desert at 14.2 million km² — larger than Europe and nearly twice the size of Australia. Antarctica receives an average of just 51mm of precipitation per year (mostly as snow), making it technically drier than the Sahara in terms of annual rainfall.

The ice sheet holds approximately 26.5 million km³ of ice — about 70% of the world’s fresh water. If it all melted, global sea levels would rise by an estimated 58 meters. Despite its harsh conditions, Antarctica supports unique ecosystems including emperor penguins, seals, and extremophile microorganisms. The lowest temperature ever recorded on Earth was here: -89.2°C at the Soviet Vostok Station in 1983.

2. Arctic Desert 🌐

The Arctic Desert spans 13.9 million km² across the northernmost parts of Canada, Russia, Greenland, and Scandinavia. Like Antarctica, it qualifies as a desert due to extremely low precipitation — much of the Arctic receives less than 250mm per year.

Unlike Antarctica, the Arctic supports indigenous human populations — Inuit, Sámi, and other peoples have lived here for thousands of years. Climate change is affecting the Arctic more dramatically than any other desert: Arctic sea ice has declined by approximately 13% per decade since 1979, and permafrost thawing threatens to release massive amounts of stored methane.

3. Sahara Desert 🌍

The Sahara is the world’s largest hot desert at 9.2 million km², covering roughly one-third of the African continent. It spans 11 countries: Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Sudan, Tunisia, and Western Sahara.

Contrary to popular belief, only about 25% of the Sahara is sandy dunes (called ergs) — the rest is rocky plateaus (hamada), gravel plains (reg), dry valleys, and mountains. The highest point is Emi Koussi at 3,445m in Chad. The Sahara experiences extreme temperature swings, from over 50°C during the day to below freezing at night. Research suggests the Sahara has grown by roughly 10% since 1920.

4. Great Australian Desert 🇦🇺

The Great Australian Desert is actually a collection of linked deserts covering 2.7 million km² — about 35% of Australia’s land area. These include the Great Victoria, Great Sandy, Tanami, Simpson, Gibson, and Little Sandy deserts. The interior, known as the “Outback,” is one of the most sparsely populated areas on Earth.

The Australian deserts have been home to Aboriginal Australians for over 65,000 years, making them the oldest continuous civilization to inhabit desert environments. Uluru (Ayers Rock), a massive sandstone monolith in the Northern Territory, is one of the country’s most iconic landmarks.

5. Arabian Desert 🇸🇦

The Arabian Desert covers 2.33 million km² across Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, the UAE, and neighboring countries. It includes the Rub’ al Khali (Empty Quarter), the largest continuous sand desert in the world at 650,000 km².

Beneath the sand lies some of the world’s richest petroleum reserves — the Arabian Desert sits atop approximately 49% of the world’s proven oil reserves. Summer temperatures regularly exceed 50°C, and some areas go years without any rainfall.

6–10. From the Gobi to the Great Basin

The Gobi Desert (1.3M km²) straddles Mongolia and China — it’s a cold desert where winter temperatures plunge to -40°C and dinosaur fossils are regularly discovered. The Kalahari (900K km²) in Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa supports surprising wildlife including the famous Kalahari lions. The Patagonian Desert (673K km²) is South America’s largest, stretching across Argentina. The Syrian Desert (500K km²) spans the Middle East. The Great Basin (492K km²) in the western United States is a cold desert where sagebrush dominates and winter snow is common.

11–15. The Rest of the List

The Chihuahuan Desert (450K km²) spans Mexico and the American Southwest. The Karakum (350K km²) in Turkmenistan is home to the “Gates of Hell” — a natural gas crater that has been burning since 1971. The Colorado Plateau (337K km²) features some of America’s most iconic landscapes including the Grand Canyon. The Sonoran Desert (310K km²) is famous for its giant saguaro cacti. The Kyzylkum (298K km²) in Central Asia is where the Aral Sea once stood.

Hot vs. Cold Deserts

Deserts are classified by their climate characteristics:

Polar deserts: Antarctica and the Arctic — extremely cold, precipitation falls as snow
Subtropical deserts: Sahara, Arabian, Australian — hot year-round, caused by high-pressure zones
Cold winter deserts: Gobi, Patagonian, Great Basin — hot summers, freezing winters
Rain shadow deserts: Found on the leeward side of mountain ranges

Methodology

Rankings are based on total area as commonly reported in geographical literature. Desert boundaries are inherently imprecise — they shift with climate patterns and different sources may use varying boundary definitions. The definition used here is the standard climatological one: areas receiving less than 250mm of average annual precipitation.