how big is the sahara desert

The Sahara Desert is enormous: it covers about 9–9.2 million square kilometers (around 3.5–3.6 million square miles), making it the largest hot desert on Earth and roughly the size of the United States or all of Europe without Russia.

Quick Scoop

• The Sahara stretches about 4,800 km (3,000 miles) from east to west.

• North to south, it spans roughly 800–1,200 km (500–750 miles).

• It covers about 30–31% of the African continent and roughly 6–8% of Earth’s land surface.

How big, in context?

• Its area of about 9–9.2 million km² is comparable to the contiguous United States or to Europe excluding the European part of Russia.

• If you defined the Sahara more broadly by very low rainfall (less than 250 mm per year), some estimates put it closer to 11 million km².

Why the numbers vary

• Estimates differ slightly (8.6–9.2 million km²) because the desert’s edges shift over time as climate and vegetation change.

• So most modern sources give a rounded figure, usually “about 9 million square kilometers,” to reflect this changing boundary.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.