Top 10 Countries with the Largest Desert Areas in 2025

Deserts are defined by very low rainfall and hyper-arid climates; they shape nearly a third of Earth’s land surface. From scorching seas of sand to cold, stony basins, they host resilient ecosystems, ancient trade routes, and fast-growing renewable energy projects. 

This list looks at countries with the largest expanses of true desert (hyper-arid zones), drawing on widely used ecological classifications and satellite-mapping conventions. 

Here are the Largest deserts in the world 2025:

1) Algeria — ~1.5 million sq km

More than 80% of Algeria lies within the Sahara, giving it the world’s largest national desert area. The landscape ranges from towering ergs (sand seas) to rocky hamadas and chotts (salt flats). Despite the extreme climate, settlements such as Tamanrasset and communities in the M’zab Valley endure, sustained by oasis agriculture, deep aquifers, and trade links across the central Sahara.

2) Saudi Arabia — ~1.3 million sq km

Saudi Arabia is dominated by the Arabian Desert, with desert and semi-desert covering roughly 95% of the country. The Rub al Khali (Empty Quarter) is the world’s largest continuous sand desert, a labyrinth of towering dunes, gravel plains, and escarpments. Beyond oil, vast sun-soaked tracts have made the kingdom a natural laboratory for utility-scale solar and wind projects.

3) Libya — ~1.2 million sq km

Around 90% of Libya is desert, much of it within the eastern Sahara. The Libyan Desert contains areas so dry that years can pass without measurable rain. Yet its bedrock holds traces of greener eras: rock art and cave paintings in places like the Acacus Mountains record ancient wildlife, shifting climates, and long-vanished lakes.

4) Australia — ~1.0 million sq km

Australia’s desert belt spans the interior and west, knitting together the Great Victoria, Simpson, Gibson, and other deserts into the broader Outback. Roughly 18% of the continent falls into desert climate zones. Vegetation is sparse but specialised—spinifex grasslands, mulga shrublands—and wildlife often responds in bursts to rare, soaking rains that trigger short-lived blooms and insect swarms.

5) Sudan — ~800,000 sq km

Northern Sudan is a mosaic of the Nubian and Bayuda deserts: volcanic fields, gravel plains, and corridors once threaded by caravans heading to and from the Nile. Though hyper-arid, the region is cut by wadis—seasonal channels that, alongside the Nile River, support limited farming and small towns at the desert’s edge.

6) China — ~700,000 sq km

China’s deserts include the Gobi and Taklamakan. The Gobi, spilling into Mongolia, is a cold desert with vast stony plains and fierce winter winds. The Taklamakan, enclosed by high mountain ranges in Xinjiang, is one of the world’s most daunting sand deserts, famous for shifting dunes, buried Silk Road sites, and extreme temperature swings between day and night.

7) Niger — ~700,000 sq km

About two-thirds of Niger is desert, dominated by the central Sahara and the stark beauty of the Ténéré. Here, long dune lines, wind-carved rock outcrops, and scant vegetation define the horizon. Despite remoteness, these corridors remain vital to trans-Saharan movement, linking Sahelian towns with North African markets.

8) Mongolia — ~500,000 sq km

The Gobi Desert covers a huge swath of southern Mongolia. Unlike classic sand seas, the Gobi features cold, dry steppes, gravel flats, and rugged ranges. It is a habitat for hardy species such as the wild Bactrian camel and the elusive snow leopard, both adapted to scant water and severe winters.

9) United States — ~500,000 sq km

Four major deserts lie in the American Southwest: the Mojave, Sonoran, Chihuahuan, and Great Basin. Together, they span parts of Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Texas. Landscapes range from saguaro-studded plains to alkaline salt flats and high, sagebrush plateaus. Many of the world’s earliest large-scale solar farms were sited here due to abundant sun and open land.

10) Iran — ~300,000 sq km

Iran’s Dasht-e Kavir (Great Salt Desert) and Dasht-e Lut (Lut Desert) are studies in extremes—salt pans, clay crusts, and dune fields shaped by relentless winds. The Lut has recorded some of the highest ground temperatures ever measured by satellite. Settlements are sparse, but historic caravan stops and qanat-fed oases testify to centuries of desert adaptation.