AbstractThe structure of several nano‐sized ceria, CeO₂, systems was investigated using neutron and X‐ray diffraction and X‐ray absorption spectroscopy. Whilst both diffraction and total pair distribution functions (PDFs) revealed that in all of the samples the occupancy of both Ce⁴⁺ and O²⁻ are very close to the ideal stoichiometry, the analysis using Reverse Monte Carlo technique revealed significant disorder around oxygen atoms in the nano‐sized ceria samples in comparison to the highly crystalline NIST standard. In addition, the analysis revealed that the main differences observed in the pair correlations from various X‐ray and neutron diffraction techniques were attributable to the particle size of the CeO₂ prepared by the reported three methods. Furthermore, detailed analysis of the Ce L₃‐ and K‐edge EXAFS data support this finding; in particular the decrease in higher shell coordination numbers with respect to the NIST standard, is attributed to differences in particle size.