The Amazon is back in the news after Brazil's election — and after deforestation fell to a record low. Here is what makes the world's biggest rainforest so remarkable, with every fact checked against its source.
It's bigger than Europe
The Amazon covers about 6.7 million km² — larger than the whole of Europe and roughly 40% of South America. It holds about half of all the tropical rainforest left on Earth.
Nine countries share one forest
The forest spreads across Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana and Suriname, plus French Guiana, which is part of France. Nearly two-thirds of it is in Brazil.
Its river carries a fifth of the world's river water
The Amazon River delivers about 18–20% of all the fresh water that rivers pour into the oceans.
It has about 390 billion trees
A 2013 study in the journal Science, using 1,170 forest plots, estimated the Amazon has about 390 billion trees of around 16,000 different species.
Just 227 kinds of tree make up half of them
Of those 16,000 species, only 227 "hyperdominant" species account for half of all the trees. The most common is a palm, Euterpe precatoria, with more than 5 billion individuals.
One in every ten known species lives there
The Amazon is home to about 10% of the world's known species. Between 1999 and 2009, scientists described more than 1,200 new species there — about one every three days.
It makes its own rain
Amazon trees release huge amounts of water vapour, and the forest produces about half of its own rainfall. Winds carry that moisture across South America in what scientists call "flying rivers".
Its rain waters farms far away
Those flying rivers supply about 18–23% of the rain in South America's La Plata basin — the farming heartland of southern Brazil and Argentina — and up to 29% in the wet season.
It is fertilised by the Sahara Desert
NASA satellites found that about 27.7 million tonnes of Saharan dust land on the Amazon every year, blown across the Atlantic. It brings about 22,000 tonnes of phosphorus — roughly what the soils lose to rain and floods.
It does NOT make 20% of the world's oxygen
This is a popular myth. The Amazon's plants make a lot of oxygen, but the forest's own plants and microbes use up nearly all of it. Its net contribution to the air we breathe is close to zero — the oxygen we breathe mostly comes from millions of years of plant and plankton life.
It's a giant carbon store
The Amazon holds an estimated 150–200 billion tonnes of carbon in its trees and soil. Releasing it would speed up climate change dramatically.
Parts of it now release more carbon than they absorb
A 2021 study in Nature, based on 590 aircraft flights, found that the south-eastern Amazon has become a net source of carbon — mainly because of deforestation and longer dry seasons.
About a fifth of Brazil's Amazon is already gone
Brazil's Amazon lost about 19% of its natural vegetation between 1985 and 2021. Scientists warn that at 20–25% deforestation, large parts could reach a "tipping point" and slowly turn into dry savanna.
2026 saw the lowest clearing ever recorded
Brazil's space agency, INPE, estimates that about 3,335 km² of Amazon forest was cleared between August 2025 and July 2026 — the lowest since records began in 1988, and down about 42% in a year. Read our explainer on Lula and the Amazon →
Its river dolphins are pink
The Amazon's botos — pink river dolphins — can grow to about 2.4 metres long. They are born grey and turn pink with age. They are listed as endangered, as are the Amazon's giant otters, which grow up to 1.8 metres.
The Amazon produces 20% of the oxygen we breathe.
Myth. The forest uses almost all the oxygen it makes, so its net contribution is close to zero.
Dust from the Sahara Desert helps feed the Amazon.
Fact. About 22,000 tonnes of phosphorus arrive each year in African dust, according to NASA.
Pink river dolphins are born pink.
Myth. Botos are born grey and become pinker as they age.
Half of all Amazon trees belong to just 227 species.
Fact. That's about 1.4% of its roughly 16,000 tree species (Science, 2013).
The Amazon is officially the world's longest river.
Myth. Most authorities still list the Nile; the answer depends on where you place the Amazon's source.
Sources: WWF; NASA Earth Observatory; ter Steege et al., Science (2013); Zemp et al., Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (2014); NASA on Saharan dust; National Geographic on the oxygen myth; Gatti et al., Nature (2021); Mongabay; Lovejoy & Nobre, Science Advances (2018); INPE via Portal Amazônia; National Geographic on river dolphins.
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