Longest rivers in the world: ranking and true-scale map
By most measures the longest river in the world is the Nile, at about 6,650 km (4,132 miles). The Amazon, the Yangtze and the Mississippi-Missouri follow. See them on a map, straighten them at one scale and check how much the Mercator map changes their length.
Map of the longest rivers in the world
The ten longest rivers in the world, three major rivers of Europe and four other great rivers: the Lena, the Mekong, the Niger and the Orinoco. Switch the map to Mercator and see which rivers suddenly grow.
Tap a river on the map or pick it from the list. A flat map distorts lengths. The straightened rivers below show the true proportions.
Nile
The longest river in the world by most measures- Length
- about 6,650 km (4,132 miles)
- Basin
- 3.35 million km²
- Discharge
- 2,800 m³/sinto the Aswan Dam
- On a Mercator map it looks like
- about 7,000 km (×1.05)
The rivers straightened
Every river drawn at the same scale, with the true shape of its course. Straighten them to compare their lengths, then check how long they look on a Mercator map: the Yenisei, the Ob and the Lena then overtake the Nile.
- Nile: about 6,650 km
- Amazon: about 6,400 km, disputed up to 6,992 km
- Yangtze: about 6,300 km
- Mississippi-Missouri: about 5,971 km
- Yenisei: about 5,540 km
- Yellow River: about 5,464 km
- Ob-Irtysh: about 5,410 km
- Paraná: about 4,880 km
- Congo: about 4,700 km
- Amur: about 4,444 km
- Lena: about 4,400 km
- Mekong: about 4,350 km, disputed up to 4,900 km
- Niger: about 4,200 km
- Volga: about 3,530 km
- Danube: about 2,850 km
- Orinoco: about 2,740 km
- Vistula: about 1,047 km
Three ways to measure a river
Length is not everything. The Amazon loses to the Nile on length, yet its basin is more than twice as large and it carries about 75 times more water. The last column shows how long a river looks on a Mercator map.
| Nile | 6,650 (4,132 mi) | 3.35 | 2,800 | 7,000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon | 6,400 (4,000 mi) | 7.05 | 210,000 | 6,400 |
| Yangtze | 6,300 (3,915 mi) | 1.81 | 30,000 | 7,300 |
| Mississippi-Missouri | 5,971 (3,710 mi) | 3.20 | 19,000 | 8,000 |
| Yenisei | 5,540 (3,442 mi) | 2.58 | 19,000 | 10,700 |
| Yellow River | 5,464 (3,395 mi) | 0.75 | 1,770 | 6,800 |
| Ob-Irtysh | 5,410 (3,362 mi) | 2.98 | 13,000 | 9,900 |
| Paraná | 4,880 (3,032 mi) | 2.80 | 18,000 | 5,400 |
| Congo | 4,700 (2,900 mi) | 3.46 | 41,000 | 4,700 |
| Amur | 4,444 (2,761 mi) | 1.86 | 11,000 | 7,000 |
| Lena | 4,400 (2,734 mi) | 2.42 | 17,000 | 9,500 |
| Mekong | 4,350 (2,700 mi) | 0.77 | 17,000 | 4,700 |
| Niger | 4,200 (2,600 mi) | 2.24 | 6,100 | 4,300 |
| Volga | 3,530 (2,193 mi) | 1.38 | 8,000 | 6,000 |
| Danube | 2,850 (1,770 mi) | 0.82 | 6,400 | 4,100 |
| Orinoco | 2,740 (1,700 mi) | 1.04 | 36,000 | 2,800 |
| Vistula | 1,047 (651 mi) | 0.19 | 1,050 | 1,700 |
Lengths follow the Encyclopædia Britannica table of the longest rivers (measured to the most distant source); discharge at the mouth mostly follows Dai and Trenberth (2002). Each river's page lists its sources. The map lines come from Natural Earth (public domain).
Rivers by water volume
Length is not water volume. The Nile is the longest, yet it carries little water at its mouth, because most of it is lost in the desert. Below are the ten rivers on this page that carry the most (mean discharge at the mouth). Click a header to change the order.
| Amazon | 6,400 (4,000 mi) | 7.05 | 210,000 | 6,400 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Congo | 4,700 (2,900 mi) | 3.46 | 41,000 | 4,700 |
| Orinoco | 2,740 (1,700 mi) | 1.04 | 36,000 | 2,800 |
| Yangtze | 6,300 (3,915 mi) | 1.81 | 30,000 | 7,300 |
| Mississippi-Missouri | 5,971 (3,710 mi) | 3.20 | 19,000 | 8,000 |
| Yenisei | 5,540 (3,442 mi) | 2.58 | 19,000 | 10,700 |
| Paraná | 4,880 (3,032 mi) | 2.80 | 18,000 | 5,400 |
| Lena | 4,400 (2,734 mi) | 2.42 | 17,000 | 9,500 |
| Mekong | 4,350 (2,700 mi) | 0.77 | 17,000 | 4,700 |
| Ob-Irtysh | 5,410 (3,362 mi) | 2.98 | 13,000 | 9,900 |
All the rivers at true scale
Test yourself: a quiz on the rivers of the world
Which river is longer when the Mercator map plays tricks on you? And where would the Nile end if it started in Warsaw?
Play the quizLongest rivers in the world: questions and answers
By most measures the Nile, at about 6,650 km (4,132 miles). Some measurements put the Amazon first: a Brazilian survey in 2007 gave it about 6,992 km, counting a different source and a different mouth.
According to the table of Encyclopædia Britannica, the ten longest rivers in the world are the Nile (6,650 km), Amazon (6,400 km), Yangtze (6,300 km), Mississippi-Missouri (5,971 km), Yenisei (5,540 km), Yellow River (5,464 km), Ob-Irtysh (5,410 km), Paraná (4,880 km), Congo (4,700 km), Amur (4,444 km).
The Volga (about 3,530 km), which flows entirely through Russia. The longest river in the European Union is the Danube (about 2,850 km).
The Vistula, 1,047 km. It flows from Barania Góra in the Silesian Beskids to the Gulf of Gdańsk.
Africa: the Nile. South America: the Amazon. Asia: the Yangtze. North America: the Mississippi-Missouri. Europe: the Volga.
The Amazon: about 210,000 m³/s at its mouth on average. The Congo is second (about 41,000 m³/s), followed by the Orinoco (about 36,000 m³/s) and the Yangtze (about 30,000 m³/s).
A river has no single obvious length. The result depends on which tributary counts as the source, where the mouth ends and how detailed the map is: the more bends a measurement follows, the longer the river. That is why comparable river lengths are hard to obtain and lists differ.
The Mercator map enlarges everything more the farther it lies from the equator. The Yenisei crosses Siberia and looks about 10,700 km long on that map, although it is about 5,540 km. The Nile flows close to the equator and looks about 7,000 km long.