Infographic: The World’s 30 Most Powerful Rivers

Key Takeaways

• The Amazon is the most powerful river in the world with an average flow rate of 224,000 m³/s.
• Its discharge could fill more than 83 Olympic-sized swimming pools every single second.
• Missing from this chart is the Nile, which has a lower average discharge (3,075 m³/s) because of massive water loss to evaporation through the arid Sahara desert.

Rivers are the arteries of our planet, moving freshwater across continents and shaping entire ecosystems. This visualization ranks the world’s 30 most powerful rivers measured by their average flow rate, shining a spotlight on waterways whose sheer volume dwarfs anything humans can engineer.

Rank	River System	Region	Average Flow Rate (m³/s)	Countries
1	Amazon–Ucayali–Apurímac	South America	224,000	🇵🇪 PER, 🇨🇴 COL, 🇧🇷 BRA
2	Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna	Asia	42,800	🇮🇳 IND, 🇧🇩 BGD, 🇨🇳 CHN
3	Congo	Africa	41,400	🇨🇩 COD, 🇨🇬 COG, 🇦🇴 AGO
4	Orinoco	South America	39,000	🇻🇪 VEN, 🇨🇴 COL
5	Yangtze (Chang Jiang)	Asia	31,900	🇨🇳 CHN
6	Río de la Plata	South America	27,225	🇦🇷 ARG, 🇺🇾 URY
7	Mississippi	North America	21,300	🇺🇸 USA
8	Yenisei	Asia	20,200	🇲🇳 MNG, 🇷🇺 RUS
9	Lena	Asia	18,300	🇷🇺 RUS
10	St. Lawrence	North America	17,600	🇨🇦 CAN, 🇺🇸 USA
11	Mekong	Asia	15,856	🇨🇳 CHN, 🇲🇲 MMR, 🇱🇦 LAO, 🇹🇭 THA, 🇰🇭 KHM, 🇻🇳 VNM
12	Irrawaddy (Ayeyarwady)	Asia	15,112	🇲🇲 MMR
13	Ob	Asia	13,100	🇷🇺 RUS
14	Amur	Asia	12,360	🇨🇳 CHN, 🇷🇺 RUS
15	Tocantins	South America	11,796	🇧🇷 BRA
16	Pearl (Xi)	Asia	10,700	🇨🇳 CHN
17	Mackenzie	North America	9,800	🇨🇦 CAN
18	Volga	Europe	8,380	🇷🇺 RUS
19	Magdalena	South America	8,058	🇨🇴 COL
20	Niger	Africa	7,900	🇬🇳 GIN, 🇲🇱 MLI, 🇳🇪 NER, 🇧🇯 BEN, 🇳🇬 NGA
21	Columbia	North America	7,407	🇺🇸 USA, 🇨🇦 CAN
22	Fly	Oceania	7,355	🇵🇬 PNG, 🇮🇩 IDN
23	Yukon	North America	6,860	🇨🇦 CAN, 🇺🇸 USA
24	Salween	Asia	6,600	🇨🇳 CHN, 🇲🇲 MMR, 🇹🇭 THA
25	Danube	Europe	6,510	🇩🇪 DEU, 🇦🇹 AUT, 🇸🇰 SVK, 🇭🇺 HUN, 🇭🇷 HRV, 🇷🇸 SRB, 🇷🇴 ROU, 🇧🇬 BGR, 🇲🇩 MDA, 🇺🇦 UKR
26	Kapuas	Asia	6,012	🇮🇩 IDN
27	Indus	Asia	5,589	🇨🇳 CHN, 🇮🇳 IND, 🇵🇰 PAK
28	Mamberamo	Oceania	5,500	🇮🇩 IDN
29	Sepik	Oceania	5,000	🇵🇬 PNG
30	Essequibo	Oceania	4,951	🇬🇾 GUY

Read more: Visual Capitalist