The Rarest Diamonds on Earth: Colors, Origins, and What They Actually Sell For

The Rarest Diamonds on Earth: Colors, Origins, and What They Actually Sell For

The rarest diamond on Earth is the red diamond—fewer than 20–30 are known to exist worldwide, and they sell for $1 million to $2.68 million per carat. Pink and blue follow, then green and pure orange. Only about 1 in 10,000 natural diamonds shows any color at all, and the record price for any diamond remains the Pink Star at $71.2 million. Color, not size, is what drives these stones into the stratosphere.

So here is the honest, expert breakdown of the rarest diamonds, where they come from, and what they truly fetch.

A Note on Where This Analysis Comes From

This guide comes from Regal Studio in Buckhead, Atlanta. Our founder, Mack, is a GIA Certified Diamond Grader with over 45 years of experience. We have handled, graded, and sourced fancy color diamonds throughout a long career, so what follows reflects real familiarity with how these stones are valued, not just auction headlines.

What Makes a Diamond Truly Rare

Rarity in colored diamonds comes down to one thing: how the color forms, and how rarely nature pulls it off.

Only about 0.1% of all mined diamonds are naturally colored. Within that sliver, some colors are far scarcer than others. The GIA grades them on a scale from Faint up to Fancy Vivid, and a single step up that intensity ladder can raise the price per carat by 50% or more. A Fancy Vivid stone is the holy grail.

A key insight often overlooked: with fancy color diamonds, the color matters more than the 4Cs you’d prioritize in a white diamond. A small stone with extraordinary color can outvalue a large one with weak color.

The Rarity Ranking: From Rarest to “Most Accessible”

1. Red Diamonds — The Rarest of All

Red is the undisputed king of rarity. Fewer than 20–30 notable red diamonds exist on the entire planet, and only a handful exceed 5 carats.

Their color does not come from a chemical impurity. It comes from a rare plastic deformation of the crystal lattice as the stone formed deep in the mantle.

• Origin: Australia (Argyle), Brazil, Africa
• Famous example: The Moussaieff Red, 5.11 carats
• Price: $1,000,000 to $2,680,000+ per carat

2. Pink Diamonds — Scarcer by the Year

Pink shares the same plastic-deformation origin as red. And the supply just got dramatically tighter.

The Argyle mine in Western Australia, which produced over 90% of the world’s pink diamonds, closed permanently in 2020. That closure pushed prices firmly upward.

• Origin: Australia (Argyle), India, Brazil, South Africa
• Famous example: The Pink Star, 59.60 carats, sold for $71.2 million in 2017 (the all-time record)
• Price: $100,000 to $700,000+ per carat for high-quality stones

3. Blue Diamonds — Rare and Regal

Blue diamonds get their color from trace boron and form astonishingly deep—sometimes hundreds of miles below the surface.

• Origin: South Africa (Cullinan mine), India, Australia
• Famous example: The Hope Diamond (45.52 ct, est. $250 million); the Oppenheimer Blue sold for $57.5 million
• Price: $200,000 to $3,000,000+ per carat at the top of the market

4. Green Diamonds — Color That Hides on the Surface

Green is one of the hardest colors to certify. The hue comes from millions of years of natural radiation, but it often lives only on the surface of the rough. Cut the stone, and the green can vanish.

• Origin: Africa, South America, India (Golconda)
• Famous example: The Dresden Green, 41 carats; the Aurora Green sold for $3.3M/carat in 2016
• Price: $50,000 to $3,000,000+ per carat depending on saturation

5. Orange Diamonds — The Quiet Rarity

Pure orange is genuinely rare, though collector demand sits below red, pink, and blue. The color comes from a specific nitrogen arrangement.

• Origin: South Africa, Australia
• Famous example: The Pumpkin Diamond, 5.54 carats, sold for ~$1.3 million
• Price: $400,000 to $700,000+ per carat for top-quality vivid stones