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