World's Largest Deserts by Area

Source: Wikipedia

World's Largest Deserts by Area

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Key Findings

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Antarctic Desert leads in Area (Million km2) with 14.20.

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Average Area (Million km2): 5.35 · median: 1.80.

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Gap: Antarctic Desert is 25.4× larger than Kalahari Desert (Africa).

About This Dataset

World's Largest Deserts by Area

Deserts ranked by total surface area in millions of square kilometres. The Antarctic Desert is the world's largest desert by area at 14.2 million square kilometres — a fact that surprises most people, as the common conception of deserts as hot and sandy excludes the polar deserts, which are defined by extremely low precipitation rather than high temperature. The Sahara is the largest hot desert and third largest overall.

Analysis

Antarctic Desert heads the table on 14.2, ahead of Arctic Desert (13.9) and Sahara (Africa) (9.20) in Area (Million km2). 13.6 separates the highest figure (14.2) from the lowest (0.56) in Area (Million km2). First and second are separated by 0.30, so the leader sits inside the field rather than apart from it. Only 3 of the 8 reach even half the leader's figure (7.10 or more).

Data Insights Below

Data Insights

Numbers, trends & sources behind this chart

Admin

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Data Points

8 categories · 1 year

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Top Value

14.20

Antarctic Desert

Area (Million km2) · All Time

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Metrics

Area (Million km2)

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Period

All Time

Single year snapshot

Methodology & source

Data source: Wikipedia
Coverage: 8 entities · 8 observations
Measure: Area (Million km2)
Last updated: 6 September 2026
Compiled by: The ANYSTAT team, from the source above

How the figures are calculated

Values use the measure and unit named on this page. Consult the dataset description and cited source for coverage, definitions and any unit conversions. Displayed values may be rounded for readability.
Entities are ranked highest-first on their value.

Rankings & Full Data

8 records · Area (Million km2) · ranked by All Time

✓ 8 sourced

#	Category	All Time
🥇	Antarctic Desert	14.20
🥈	Arctic Desert	13.90
🥉	Sahara (Africa)	9.20
4	Arabian Desert (Asia)	2.30
5	Gobi Desert (Asia)	1.30
6	Patagonian Desert (South America)	0.67
7	Great Victoria Desert (Australia)	0.65
8	Kalahari Desert (Africa)	0.56

Data Sources & References

All external sources cited in this dataset

1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antarctic_Desert Visit ↗

2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_Desert Visit ↗

3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sahara Visit ↗

4 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabian_Desert Visit ↗

5 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gobi_Desert Visit ↗

6 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patagonian_Desert Visit ↗

7 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Victoria_Desert Visit ↗

8 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalahari_Desert Visit ↗

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APA

ANYSTAT. (2026). World's Largest Deserts by Area [Data set]. Data: Wikipedia. https://anystat.ai/stats/339/worlds-largest-deserts-by-area

MLA

"World's Largest Deserts by Area." ANYSTAT, 6 Sep. 2026, https://anystat.ai/stats/339/worlds-largest-deserts-by-area.

Link for your website

<a href="https://anystat.ai/stats/339/worlds-largest-deserts-by-area">World&#039;s Largest Deserts by Area</a> (ANYSTAT)

World's Largest Deserts by Area