LIST OF WORLD 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