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where are tropical rainforests found

Tropical rainforests are mainly found in a belt around the Equator, in the warm, wet parts of the world.

Quick Scoop

The Big Picture

Tropical rainforests grow in the tropics, the region roughly between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn where it is hot and wet all year. They are especially common between about 10° north and 10° south of the Equator, where temperatures are around 28°C and rainfall is very high.

Main Regions Where They Are Found

You can think of tropical rainforests as being clustered in three main global regions.

  • South and Central America
    • Amazon Basin in Brazil, plus parts of Peru, Colombia, and other nearby countries.
* Smaller rainforest areas extend into Central America and southern Mexico.
  • Africa
    • Congo Basin in Central Africa, especially the Democratic Republic of Congo.
* Additional tropical rainforest patches in West Africa and along parts of East Africa and Madagascar.
  • Asia–Pacific
    • Southeast Asia: Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, and Papua New Guinea.
* Northern Australia and many islands in the Pacific and Caribbean also have smaller rainforest areas.

Simple Story Style Explanation

Imagine a thick green “jungle belt” wrapped around Earth’s middle. That belt crosses South America, Africa, and Asia, following the hot, rainy zone near the Equator. Wherever that belt meets land with the right climate—hot, humid, with lots of rain—tropical rainforests grow there.

Key Facts as Bullets

  • Found mainly between the Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn.
  • Biggest rainforest: the Amazon in South America.
  • Other major rainforests: Congo Basin in Africa and Southeast Asian rainforests in Indonesia and nearby countries.
  • Smaller tropical rainforests also grow on islands in the Caribbean and Pacific, in parts of Central America, India, and northern Australia.

Very Short TL;DR

Tropical rainforests are found in hot, rainy areas near the Equator, mainly in the Amazon (South America), Congo Basin (Africa), and Southeast Asia, plus smaller patches in other tropical regions.

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