List of uninhabited regions

A map of the ergs and mountain ranges of the Sahara.

The Sahara, the world's largest desert, is not uninhabited and even remote areas like In Guezzam Province, Algeria, have a population of tens of thousands. The only truly uninhabited places in the Sahara are the ergs: sand dune fields. Even the hot and salty dried lake beds have Bedouin communities within them that graze their animals in the salt marshes and at nearby oases, for example the below-sea level Qattara Depression contains the tiny village of Qara Oasis and cannot be said to be truly uninhabited.

All of Antarctica is uninhabited aside from a few scientific research stations.[3]

This maps shows the human settlements along the Arctic Ocean.

Tens of thousands of people live north of the Arctic Circle and many hundreds of thousands more within the Arctic Ocean drainage basin but outside of the Circle. The only parts of the Arctic that are truly uninhabited are the interior and northernmost coasts of Greenland, many of the islands in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago and some other islands in Northern Norway and the Russian North. Devon Island, in the Canadian North, is the world's largest uninhabited island.

Northeast Greenland National Park, which is the world's largest terrestrial protected area, has had a census population of 0 for many years since the only mine in the region closed. Nevertheless parts of this remote area can see seasonal use: 31 people and about 110 dogs were present over winter of 2008.

A population density map of Australia. Most of the continent is very sparsely populated, but only a few areas are truly deserted.

Even the driest regions of Australia have indigenous communities within them. In 1984 a previously-uncontacted tribe emerged from the Gibson Desert. There are however, several ergs (sand dunes and salt plains) that are truly uninhabited.

Besides the in Arctic and Subarctic (see above), few areas of any size in North America can be said to be uninhabited. Most of these are strict nature reserves or wilderness area protected by law. Among the largest of these are Improvement District No. 25, Alberta (4,601.52 square kilometres (1,776.66 sq mi) and Tweedsmuir South Provincial Park, British Columbia (989,616 hectares (3,820.93 sq mi).

• Antipodes Islands
• Ashmore and Cartier Islands[4]
• Bajo Nuevo Bank
• Baker Island[5]
• Ball's Pyramid
• Balleny Islands
• Big Major Cay
• Bouvet Island[6]
• Much of the interior of Brazil
• Caroline Island
• Clipperton Island
• Dasht-e Kavir and Dasht-e Lut in Iran
• Much of Eastern Oregon[7]
• Elephant Island
• Elobey Chico
• Ernst Thälmann Island
• Much of Fiordland, New Zealand[8]
• Goa Island
• Gough Island
• Hans Island
• Harmil
• Hashima Island[9]
• Hatutu
• Heard Island and McDonald Islands[10]
• Much of Iceland, especially its highlands
• The upper alpine zone and nival zone of the Himalaya (and most other high mountains).
• Howland Island[11]
• Ilha da Queimada Grande
• Inishark
• Jaco Island
• Jarvis Island[12]
• Jong Batu
• Kahoolawe Island
• Kerguelen Islands
• Kingman Reef[13]
• Little Colonsay
• Mborokua
• Minquiers and Ecréhous
• Melville Island
• Monomoy Island
• Perejil Island
• Prince Edward Islands
• Much of northeast Nevada
• Navassa Island[14]
• Nomans Land
• Much in Far North Canada
• Much of Northern British Columbia
• Much of Northern Ontario
• Paracel Islands[15]
• Palmyra Atoll[16]
• Redonda
• Round Island
• South Orkney Islands
• Virtually all of the South China Sea islands
• Spratly Islands[17]
• Stirling Island
• Siwalik (outermost Himalayan foothills) and surrounding alluvial skirt Bhabar in India, Pakistan, Nepal and Bhutan, apparently due to endemic malaria and droughty soils.
• St Kilda
• Tetepare Island
• Tibet's upper alpine zone and nival zone.
• Tinakula