The Longest Rivers in the World

The world's great rivers, by length.

The world's longest rivers, ranked by length — the Nile and the Amazon at the summit, followed by the great rivers of Asia and the Americas.

#	Place	Length (mi)
1	Nile The world's longest river, lifeblood of ancient Egypt	4,404 mi 7,088 km
2	Amazon River The greatest river on Earth by volume, draining half a continent	3,977 mi 6,400 km
3	Yangtze Asia's longest river, the spine of China	3,915 mi 6,300 km
4	Yellow River China's muddy mother river, cradle of Chinese civilization	3,395 mi 5,464 km
5	Mekong River Southeast Asia's lifeline, from the Tibetan Plateau to the sea	3,050 mi 4,909 km
6	Parana River South America's second river, the heart of the Rio de la Plata basin	3,032 mi 4,880 km
7	Congo River The deepest river on Earth, draining the heart of Africa	2,920 mi 4,700 km
8	Lena River The great river of eastern Siberia, frozen highway to the Arctic	2,734 mi 4,400 km
9	Niger River West Africa's great river, looping through the desert's edge	2,597 mi 4,180 km
10	Mississippi River North America's great central artery, from Minnesota to the Gulf	2,340 mi 3,766 km
11	Volga River Europe's longest river and the soul of Russia	2,194 mi 3,531 km
12	Yenisei The mightiest river to reach the Arctic, splitting Siberia in two	2,167 mi 3,487 km
13	Indus River Cradle of an ancient civilization, lifeline of Pakistan	1,976 mi 3,180 km
14	Brahmaputra The mighty trans-Himalayan river, partner of the Ganges	1,802 mi 2,900 km
15	Danube Europe's second river, flowing through ten countries	1,771 mi 2,850 km

Figures are drawn from standard government and reference sources and shown in both imperial and metric units. See each entry for full details and citations. Browse all guides or open the explore map.