Yes, people live in the Gobi Desert, and they have for thousands of years. The vast majority are nomadic and semi-nomadic herders who move across the landscape with their livestock, living in portable felt tents called gers (also known as yurts). The Gobi stretches across southern Mongolia and northern China, covering roughly 1.3 million square kilometers, and while population density is extremely low, scattered communities of herders, miners, and small-town residents call it home.
Who Lives There and How
The Gobi’s human population is spread thinly across an enormous area. Most residents are Mongolian herding families who raise goats, sheep, horses, camels, and cattle. These families don’t stay in one place. GPS tracking of herding communities in the Gobi found that families relocate their camps an average of nine times per year, moving between summer and winter pastures that can be 70 to 123 kilometers apart. They typically stay at each camp for 25 to 49 days depending on the season.
Where they move depends on what their animals need. In warmer months, biomass and pasture quality drive decisions. In winter, shelter from wind takes priority over grazing. Livestock spend most of their day, 13 to 17 hours, within about 100 meters of camp, which means herders need to pick locations carefully to keep animals fed without exhausting nearby vegetation.
On the Chinese side of the Gobi, settlement patterns differ. Small towns and oasis communities dot the desert’s edges, and some areas have been developed for agriculture and industry. But across both countries, the defining feature of Gobi life is the same: people spread out across vast distances, adapting to an environment that doesn’t support dense settlement.
Surviving Extreme Conditions
The Gobi is not a sand-dune desert like the Sahara. Most of it is rocky, wind-swept steppe with sparse vegetation. What makes it harsh is the temperature range: winters regularly drop below minus 30°C, while summers can push past 40°C. Annual precipitation in the southern and central desert regions runs just 100 to 200 millimeters, roughly a tenth of what falls in a temperate European city. Recent climate analysis using tree ring data found that the consecutive years of record-high temperatures and drought in Mongolia are unprecedented in over 250 years.
The ger is central to surviving these extremes. These circular, collapsible dwellings can be assembled or taken down in a few hours, making them ideal for a mobile lifestyle. Their design relies on layers of felt and canvas stretched over a wooden lattice frame. They’re lightweight and have little capacity to retain heat on their own, so families burn dried animal dung or wood in a central stove and depend on the insulating properties of the felt walls to trap warmth. In summer, the felt layers can be partially rolled up to allow airflow.
Water and Food in the Desert
Water access is one of the biggest daily challenges. Herding families rely on shallow wells and natural ponds to supply both their households and their animals. A study of water use in Mongolia’s Gobi region found that 1.8 million head of livestock consumed roughly 32,850 cubic meters of water, a remarkably small amount that reflects just how carefully resources are managed. When natural water sources dry up or shift, families have to move.
The diet of Gobi residents revolves around what their animals produce. Meat and dairy, particularly from sheep and goats, form the foundation of nearly every meal. Fermented mare’s milk, dried curds, and boiled mutton are staples. Fruits and vegetables are scarce. As one Mongolian nutrition researcher put it, “Mongolians have no food sovereignty issues. It’s getting the fruits and veggies that’s hard; those resources are very limited.” The short growing season means plant-based foods are either imported from cities at high cost or simply absent from the table for much of the year. Wheat is the most commonly grown grain in areas where farming is possible, but most Gobi families aren’t farmers.
Mining and Modern Settlement
The Gobi sits on top of enormous mineral deposits, and mining has become a major economic force in the region. The Oyu Tolgoi copper and gold mine in Mongolia’s South Gobi province is one of the largest in the world, attracting billions of dollars in foreign investment since its development began in the late 1990s. By 2014, foreign direct investment tied to the project reached $11.8 billion, equivalent to 113% of Mongolia’s GDP that year.
Mining has created pockets of modern settlement in the desert, with workers’ camps, supply towns, and infrastructure that didn’t exist a generation ago. But the relationship between mining and local communities is complicated. Research on rural migration patterns found that mining districts don’t actually attract migrants or improve employment among local herding families. Household income in mining areas is not significantly different from income in non-mining areas. Instead of settling near mines, rural Mongolians who leave the desert tend to head for Ulaanbaatar or established cities. The mines employ workers, but many are brought in from elsewhere rather than hired locally.
A Way of Life Under Pressure
The number of people living a traditional nomadic life in the Gobi has been declining for decades. Desertification is expanding the desert’s boundaries, degrading the pastureland that herders depend on. Sandstorms have grown more frequent and severe. The combination of rising temperatures, prolonged drought, and overgrazing has pushed many families to abandon herding altogether and migrate to cities.
Mongolia’s total population is about 3.4 million, and roughly half now live in Ulaanbaatar alone. That concentration reflects a steady rural exodus driven not just by environmental pressure but by the desire for education, healthcare, and economic opportunity that the desert can’t easily provide. For those who remain, life in the Gobi continues as it has for generations: mobile, resource-scarce, and deeply tied to the animals and landscape that sustain it. But each year, fewer families choose to stay.