Which continent is also Earth's largest desert by area?

Antarctica is both a continent and Earth's largest desert by area.

The Antarctic Ice Sheet covers about 98 percent of the continent and contains roughly 60 percent of the planet's fresh water by volume. Despite its enormous ice reserves, Antarctica qualifies as a desert because most of the continent receives very little precipitation, commonly less than 200 millimetres of water equivalent per year along the coast and far less inland.

Antarctica is the coldest, driest, and windiest continent. Its interior supports almost no permanent terrestrial plant life, although coastal ecosystems and the surrounding Southern Ocean support penguins, seals, whales, and many seabirds.

The continent has no permanent native human population. Scientific research stations operate under the Antarctic Treaty System, which reserves the region for peaceful purposes and scientific investigation. The Arctic is also a polar environment, but it is an ocean surrounded by land rather than a continent.