Compare the size of two countries
Pick two countries to compare their size. The squares are drawn to scale by area.
The ten largest
| Country | Area |
|---|---|
| Russia | 17,100,000 km² (6,602,347 sq mi) |
| Antarctica | 14,000,000 km² (5,405,430 sq mi) |
| Canada | 9,984,670 km² (3,855,103 sq mi) |
| United States | 9,629,091 km² (3,717,813 sq mi) |
| China | 9,596,960 km² (3,705,407 sq mi) |
| Brazil | 8,511,965 km² (3,286,488 sq mi) |
| Australia | 7,686,850 km² (2,967,909 sq mi) |
| India | 3,287,590 km² (1,269,346 sq mi) |
| Argentina | 2,766,890 km² (1,068,302 sq mi) |
| Kazakhstan | 2,717,300 km² (1,049,155 sq mi) |
Why maps make some countries look bigger
Most web maps use the Mercator projection, which keeps shapes right but stretches everything away from the equator. Greenland looks about the size of Africa, but Africa is about 14 times bigger; Canada and Russia look far larger than they are compared with Brazil or India. Comparing areas, as here, avoids the distortion.
Areas are total areas (land and inland water) as published by GeoNames. Countries measure and report their areas differently — some include coastal waters or disputed regions — so other sources may give slightly different figures.
Areas: GeoNames country information (CC BY 4.0). Country names: the Unicode CLDR, as built into your browser's engine.