Composition of Venus' Atmosphere

Source:  NASA / Atmosphere of Venus

Composition of Venus' Atmosphere

Bar
H-Bar
Line
Area
Table
Loading...

Key Findings

🏆
Carbon Dioxide leads in Share of Atmosphere (% by volume) with 96.50.
📊
Average Share of Atmosphere (% by volume): 16.67  ·  median: 0.011.
↔️
Gap: Carbon Dioxide is 56,764.7× larger than Carbon Monoxide.

About This Dataset

Composition of Venus' Atmosphere
This chart shows the composition of Venus's atmosphere by volume. Like Mars it is dominated by carbon dioxide, but Venus's atmosphere is extraordinarily thick, driving a runaway greenhouse effect.
Analysis

Venus's atmosphere is 96.5% carbon dioxide and 3.5% nitrogen, a composition broadly similar to Mars yet with dramatically different consequences. Because Venus's atmosphere is roughly 90 times as massive as Earth's, that carbon dioxide traps heat in a runaway greenhouse effect, producing surface temperatures near 465 C, hot enough to melt lead. Everything beyond CO2 and nitrogen exists only in trace amounts: sulfur dioxide (about 0.015%) feeds the planet's thick sulfuric-acid clouds, while argon, water vapour and carbon monoxide register at just a few parts per million. The near-total absence of water and free oxygen, together with the crushing carbon-dioxide load, makes Venus a cautionary example of how the very same dominant gas yields a frozen desert on Mars but a furnace on Venus, depending on atmospheric mass.

Data Insights

Numbers, trends & sources behind this chart

Admin
⬡
Data Points
6
6 categories  ·  1 year
↑
Top Value
96.50
Carbon Dioxide
Share of Atmosphere (% by volume) · All Time
◈
Metrics
1
Share of Atmosphere (% by volume)
◷
Period
All Time
Single year snapshot

Methodology & source

Data source
NASA / Atmosphere of Venus
Coverage
6 entities · 6 observations
Measure
Share of Atmosphere (% by volume)
Last updated
7 July 2026
Compiled by
The ANYSTAT team, from the source above
How the figures are calculated
  • 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.

Rankings & Full Data

6 records · Share of Atmosphere (% by volume) · ranked by All Time

✓ 6 sourced
# Category All Time Source
🥇 Carbon Dioxide 96.50
🥈 Nitrogen 3.50
🥉 Sulfur Dioxide 0.015
4 Argon 0.007
5 Water Vapor 0.002
6 Carbon Monoxide 0.002

Data Sources & References

All external sources cited in this dataset

Was this chart useful?
⚑ Spotted an error in this data? Report it
What is wrong?

Cite this chart

Using this chart in an article, report, class or website? Please cite it and link to this page.

Related Charts

More statistics on similar topics

Related All Time
Carbon D Nitrogen Argon Oxygen Carbon M Water Va
95.0
Carbon Dioxide
Composition of Mars' Atmosphere

Carbon Dioxide (95), Nitrogen (2.80) and Argon (2) take the top three in Share of Atmosphere (% by volume). Values run f...

View Chart 2 months ago
Related All Time
Iron Oxygen Silicon Magnesiu Sulfur Nickel
32.1
Iron
Bulk Composition of Planet Earth by Mass

Measured as a whole planet, Earth is an iron world: iron makes up 32.1% of its total mass, narrowly ahead of oxygen at 3...

View Chart 2 months ago
Related All Time
Uranium Thorium Protacti Actinium Radium Francium
238.0
Uranium
Heaviest Naturally Occurring Elements by Atomic Mass

Uranium is the heaviest naturally occurring element in significant quantity, with an atomic mass near 238, followed clos...

View Chart 2 months ago
Play