Densest Chemical Elements
Key Findings
About This Dataset
Densest Chemical ElementsOsmium (22.59 g/cm3) and iridium (22.56 g/cm3) are the densest elements known, so close that historically it was disputed which held the record. Both are more than twice as dense as lead (about 11.3 g/cm3) and cluster tightly with platinum (21.45) and rhenium (21.02) at the top. A recurring theme is that the densest elements are heavy transition metals and actinides packed into compact crystal structures. After rhenium the values step down through neptunium and plutonium into a group near 19 g/cm3 that includes gold, tungsten and uranium, three very different elements with nearly identical density. Tantalum, at 16.69 g/cm3, closes the top ten but is already noticeably lighter than the leaders.
Data Insights
Numbers, trends & sources behind this chart
Methodology & source
- Data source
- Royal Society of Chemistry
- Coverage
- 10 entities · 10 observations
- Measure
- Density (g/cm3)
- Last updated
- 7 July 2026
- Compiled by
- The ANYSTAT team, from the source above
- Values are shown as reported by the source. Nothing is rescaled, rebased or converted — the only changes are thousand separators and decimals shown to two places.
- Entities are ranked highest-first on their value.
Data Sources & References
All external sources cited in this dataset
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