World Desert Map: Complete List of Deserts by Continent

A world desert map is more useful when the names on the map are tied to real places, regional boundaries, and desert types. The interactive globe below shows the mapped desert records used by DesertsOfTheWorld.com, while the directory on this page organizes the site’s 103 published desert and desert-like regional profiles by continent or polar region.

The count needs context. Earth does not have one official, universally accepted total of named deserts. Some desert systems contain smaller named deserts, some maps use ecological boundaries while others use geographic names, and semi-arid badlands or dune fields may appear in popular desert lists even when they do not meet the same climatic definition as the Sahara or Antarctica. The directory therefore states the unit being described when an area figure depends on a protected area, ecoregion, basin, peninsula, or wider dryland.

How Many Deserts Are There in the World?

A common climatic rule describes a desert as land receiving no more than about 250 mm (10 inches) of precipitation per year. That rule explains why Antarctica and parts of the Arctic qualify as polar deserts even though they are cold and ice-covered. It does not, by itself, settle every name or boundary. A broad desert system may overlap smaller named regions, and dryland classifications can also use evaporation, vegetation, temperature, landform, or ecoregion boundaries.

This is why published desert totals differ. A list that counts the Arabian Desert as one unit will produce a different total from a list that also counts the Empty Quarter, Al-Dahna, and Nefud separately. The same nesting problem appears in the Sahara, the Arctic, Australia, and the dry basins of western North America.

Deserts by Continent and Polar Region

The tables below follow the site’s current profile directory. Area values are approximate unless a defined official boundary is available. Where a desert name does not have one stable mapped boundary, the table says so rather than forcing a precise figure. For a broader explanation of climate patterns and geographic groupings, see deserts by region.

Africa (22 Profiles)

Asia (37 Profiles)

Europe (5 Profiles)

Several European entries are semi-arid badlands, sandy landscapes, or steppe-transition regions commonly described as deserts. Their table labels reflect that distinction.

North America (16 Profiles)

South America (6 Profiles)

Australia and Oceania (10 Profiles)

Antarctica (3 Profiles)

Arctic Polar Region (4 Profiles)

The Arctic is a polar region rather than a continent. Its desert zones cross islands and northern landmasses, so narrow ecoregion figures and broad polar-desert estimates are not interchangeable.

What the World Desert Map Shows

The globe uses the site’s 85 mapped desert records. Where a desert name has a strict exact-name match in the RESOLVE Ecoregions 2017 dataset, the map can display a source-backed area polygon. Records without that exact match remain mapped as points at their established locations. This avoids drawing invented circles or guessed boundaries around deserts whose limits are not represented by the source dataset.

Country outlines come from Natural Earth. The globe is therefore a locator and exploration tool rather than a claim that every named desert has a universally agreed border. Selecting a marker or mapped area opens the matching site profile for more detail.

Why Desert Area Figures Vary

Desert edges are often transition zones rather than sharp lines. Rainfall, vegetation, soil, drainage, dunes, bedrock, and elevation can all be used to define a boundary. Two reliable sources can therefore give different area figures because they measured different geographic units.

Australia shows the problem clearly. Geoscience Australia publishes defined areas for ten mainland deserts, so those official figures are used here. Elsewhere, a profile may describe a broader geographic desert, an ecoregion, a protected area, or a named dune field. The table labels those cases instead of treating unlike boundaries as if they were measured by one global standard.

Nested names also matter. The Arabian Desert contains large named sand regions such as the Empty Quarter. The Sahara contains named subregions that are also discussed separately. Counting both the parent system and its internal regions is useful for a directory, but it should not be mistaken for a set of non-overlapping areas.

Desert Types Used in the Directory

A desert can carry more than one type label because climate classifications and landform classifications describe different properties. A coastal desert can also be hot; a cold desert can also sit in a rain shadow; a desert basin can contain salt flats, rocky ground, and sandy sectors at the same time.

• Hot desert: Arid low- or mid-latitude desert with generally warm to very hot conditions.
• Cold desert: Arid region with cold winters, high elevation, strong continentality, or a combination of these.
• Polar desert: Very dry high-latitude environment where precipitation is low and much of the available water is frozen.
• Coastal desert: Desert strongly influenced by an adjacent ocean, often including cold-current and fog effects.
• Rain-shadow desert: Dry region on the leeward side of mountain barriers that remove moisture from incoming air.
• Sandy desert: Desert or dryland with major dune fields or sand-sea terrain.
• Salt desert: Arid basin or landscape with extensive salt flats, playas, or saline surfaces.
• Rocky desert: Dry landscape dominated by gravel plains, exposed rock, stony plateaus, or similar hard surfaces.

Sources

• NASA Science: Biome — Desert (desert precipitation and biome characteristics)
• National Geographic Education: Desert (desert definition, types, and global distribution)
• UNEP-WCMC: RESOLVE Ecoregions 2017 (source dataset used for exact-name desert ecoregion polygons on the globe)
• Natural Earth: 1:110m Cultural Vectors (country boundaries used by the globe)
• Geoscience Australia: Areas of Australian and Territory Deserts (official Australian desert areas)
• British Antarctic Survey: Antarctic Factsheet (Antarctica area and polar-desert climate)
• U.S. National Park Service: Deserts (desert definition and Great Basin cold-desert context)