Is Brazil Larger Than the Sahara Desert? A Numbers Check

The claim is incorrect. The areas are:

• Brazil: 8,515,767 km² (3,287,956 mi²)
• Sahara Desert: ~9,200,000 km² (3,552,000 mi²)

The Sahara is ~7–8% larger than Brazil. Brazil is the world's 5th largest country; the Sahara is the largest hot desert (3rd largest desert overall after Antarctic and Arctic polar deserts).

Visual confusion arises because Brazil dominates South America on maps, while the Sahara spans the full width of North Africa—but Africa's landmass is larger than South America's, and the Sahara covers ~31% of it.