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Tropical dry forests have been estimated to comprise 42% of all tropical forested biomes and are believed to be one of the world’s most endangered ecosystems. There is a growing interest in identifying forest extent and forest change in tropical dry forest regions, especially to identify dry forest that deserve a high conservation priority at a global spatial scale. There is currently a debate concerning the classification and extent of tropical dry forest at the global scale. We identify the extent of tropical dry forest regions based on commonly used climatic definitions and datasets to improve global estimates of tropical dry forest extent. We compare climatic definitions of tropical dry forest (Murphy and Lugo, FAO, Dryflor, Aridity Index) using Worldclim, CHELSA, and Global Aridity and PET climatic datasets (1 km) and compare results to the World Wildlife Fund’s Terrestrial Ecoregions (Tropical and Subtropical Dry Broadleaf …