Which is the world’s driest inhabited continent?

Technically the driest continent on Earth is Antarctica; the continent is however not inhabited by human societies apart from research teams and explorers who at time venture into the vast wilderness. Australia is, therefore, the world’s driest inhabited continent. Australia is also the smallest continent occupying a land mass of about 2.97 million square miles which is about 5% of the Earth's land mass, as well as the lowest and flattest continent.

The continent is established as the driest continent despite other larger continents such as Africa having larger areas of deserts. The Sahara Desert, for example, occupies a larger land area than Australia. The African continent, however, has other large parts that receive considerable precipitation including the Congo rainforest which is the second-largest equatorial rain forest in the world. Australia has the highest percentage of dry climates across the whole land mass.

About 50% of the continent’s landmass receives 11.8 inches per year or lower while 80% of the landmass receives 23.6 inches per year or lower. The continent also has an incredibly high evaporation rate with over 75% of the land mass experiencing a potential evaporation rate that is higher than 98.4 inches per year. Some areas in central Australia are known to experience potential evaporation of about 177.2 inches per year, which is roughly 20 times greater than the annual rainfall.