Major World Rivers

River Extremes
The longest river in the world is the Nile River (4,157 miles long); it is located in northeastern Africa, and flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The second-longest river is the Amazon River (3,915 miles long); it is located in northeastern South America, and flows into the Atlantic Ocean. The third-longest river is the Chang (Yangtse) River (3,434 miles long); it flows across south-central China and into the East China Sea.

The river with the biggest volume (the most water flowing in it) is the Amazon River.

Continent	Longest River	Length
Africa	Nile River	4,157 miles (6,690 km) long
Antarctica	none	n/a
Asia	Yangtze River	3,434 miles (5,530 km) long
Australia	Murray-Darling River	2,310 miles (3,720 km) long
Europe	Volga River	2,290 miles (3,700 km) long
North America	Mississippi-Missouri River	2,540 miles (4,090 km) + 2,340 miles (3,770 km) long
South America	Amazon River	3,915 miles (6,300 km) long

River	Flows into	Length in Miles
Nile	Mediterranean	4,157
Amazon	Atlantic Ocean	3,915
Chang (Yangtse)	East China Sea	3,434
Huang (Yellow)	Gulf og Chihli, Yellow Sea	2.901
Ob-Irtysh	Gulf of Ob	3,362
Amur	Tatar Strait	2,744
Lena	Laptev Sea	2,734
Congo	Atlantic Ocean	2,718
Mekong	South China Sea	2,600
Niger	Gulf of Guinea	2,590
Yenisey	Kara Sea	2,543
Missouri	Mississippi River	2,540
Parana	Rio de la Plata	2,485
Mississippi	Southwest Pass	2,340
Murray-Darling	Indian Ocean	2,310
Volga	Caspian Sea	2,290
Purus	Amazon River	2,100
Madeira	Amazon River	2,013
Sao Francisco	Atlantic Ocean	1,988
Yukon	Bering Sea	1,980
Rio Grande	Gulf of Mexico	1,900
Brahmaputra	Bay of Bengal	1,800
Indus	Arabian Sea	1,800
Danube	Black Sea	1,776
Japura	Amazon River	1,750
Euphrates	Shatt al-Arab	1,700
Zambezi	Indian Ocean	1,700
Tocantins	Para River	1,677
Orinoco	Atantic Ocean	1,600
Paraguay	Parana River	1,584
Amu	Aral Sea	1,578
Ural	Caspian Sea	1,575
Ganges	Bay of Bengal	1,560
Salween	Andaman Sea	1,500
Arkansas	Mississippi River	1,460
Colorado, AZ	Gulf of California	1,450
Dnieper	Black Sea	1,420
Negro	Amazon River	1,400
Syr	Aral Sea	1,370
Irrawaddy	Bay of Bengal	1,337
Orange	Atlantic Ocean	1,300
Red	Atchafalaya River	1,290
Brazos	Gulf of Mexico	1,280
Columbia	Pacific Ocean	1,240
Don	Sea of Azov	1,224
Peace	Slave River	1,210
Xi	S. China Sea	1,200
Tigris	Shatt al-Arab	1,180
Angara	Yenisey River	1,151
Songhua	Amur River	1,150
Snake	Columbia River	1,040
Mackenzie	Arctic Ocean	1,025
Churchill, Man.	Hudson Bay	1,000
Pilcomayo	Paraguay River	1,000
Uruguay	Rio de la Plata	1,000
Platte	Missouri River	990
Ohio	Mississippi	981
Magdalena	Caribbean Sea	956
Pecos	Rio Grande	926
Canadian	Arkansas River	906
Dniester	Black Sea	877
Fraser	Str. of Georgia	850
Dvina, North	White Sea	824
Rhine	North Sea	820
St. Lawrence	Gulf of St. Lawrence	800 or 1,900
Ottawa	St. Lawrence River	790
Elbe	North Sea	724
Gambia	Atlantic Ocean	700
Wisla	Bay of Danzig	675
Tennessee	Ohio River	652
Dvina, West	Gulf of Riga	634
Loire	Bay of Biscay	634
Tajo, Tagus	Atlantic Ocean	626
Albany	James Bay	610
Back, N.W.T.	Arctic Ocean	605
Tisza	Danube River	600
Meuse	North Sea	580
Oder	Baltic Sea	567
Ebro	Mediterranean	565
Red River of N.	Lake Winnipeg	545
Churchill, Que.	Atlantic Ocean	532
Rhone	Gulf of Lions	505
Seine	English Channel	496
Kootenay	Columbia River	485
Bug, Western	Wisla River	481
Weser	North Sea	454
Drava	Danube River	447
Saguenay	St. Lawrence River	434
St. John	Bay of Fundy	418
Nelson	Hudson Bay	410
Po	Adriatic Sea	405
Rio Roosevelt	Aripuana	400
Garonne	Bay of Biscay	357
Marne	Seine River	326
Tiber	Tyrrhenian Sea	252
Thames	North Sea	236
Shannon	Atlantic Ocean	230
Jordan	Dead Sea	200
Rio de la Plata	Atlantic Ocean	150

Refs. Encyclopedia Britannica and Kammerer, J.C., May, 1990, Largest Rivers in the United States, US Geological Survey Fact Sheet, Open File Report 87-242.