Ranked: The World’s Largest Countries by Land Area

Ranked: The World’s Largest Countries by Land Area

A handful of countries occupy a remarkable share of the planet’s land. Russia alone accounts for 12.6% of the global total, while China and the U.S. each account for roughly 7%.

Some of the rankings may be surprising. The U.S. narrowly surpasses Canada when inland water is excluded, while Australia has more than twice the land area of India.

Using World Bank data, this graphic ranks the world’s 50 largest countries by land area, excluding inland water bodies.

The Largest Countries Pull Away From the Rest

The gap between the largest countries and the rest is steep. Australia, ranked sixth, is nearly three times larger than India in seventh place.

Taken together, the five largest countries occupy more land than the next 27 countries combined.

Rank	Country	Land Area (mi²)	Share
1	Russia	6,323,142	12.6%
2	China	3,624,807	7.2%
3	U.S.	3,531,837	7.0%
4	Canada	3,393,335	6.8%
5	Brazil	3,227,095	6.4%
6	Australia	2,969,904	5.9%
7	India	1,147,955	2.3%
8	Argentina	1,056,641	2.1%
9	Kazakhstan	1,042,360	2.1%
10	Algeria	919,595	1.8%
11	DR Congo	875,313	1.7%
12	Saudi Arabia	830,000	1.7%
13	Mexico	750,563	1.5%
14	Indonesia	730,719	1.5%
15	Sudan	721,239	1.4%
16	Libya	679,362	1.4%
17	Iran	626,450	1.3%
18	Mongolia	601,740	1.2%
19	Peru	494,211	1.0%
20	Niger	489,075	1.0%
21	Chad	486,180	1.0%
22	Angola	481,353	1.0%
23	Mali	471,118	0.9%
24	South Africa	468,376	0.9%
25	Ethiopia	435,716	0.9%
26	Colombia	428,380	0.9%
27	Bolivia	418,264	0.8%
28	Mauritania	397,955	0.8%
29	Egypt	384,345	0.8%
30	Nigeria	351,650	0.7%
31	Tanzania	342,009	0.7%
32	Venezuela	340,561	0.7%
33	Namibia	317,874	0.6%
34	Mozambique	303,623	0.6%
35	Pakistan	297,638	0.6%
36	Türkiye	297,156	0.6%
37	Zambia	287,024	0.6%
38	Chile	286,809	0.6%
39	Myanmar	251,997	0.5%
40	Afghanistan	251,827	0.5%
41	South Sudan	243,989	0.5%
42	Somalia	242,217	0.5%
43	Central African Republic	240,534	0.5%
44	Madagascar	224,634	0.4%
45	Kenya	224,278	0.4%
46	Ukraine	223,707	0.4%
47	Botswana	218,816	0.4%
48	France	208,090	0.4%
49	Yemen	203,850	0.4%
50	Thailand	197,256	0.4%
51	Spain	192,934	0.4%
52	Cameroon	182,514	0.4%
53	Turkmenistan	181,441	0.4%
54	Papua New Guinea	174,850	0.3%
55	Morocco	172,317	0.3%
56	Uzbekistan	170,136	0.3%
57	Iraq	167,618	0.3%
58	Greenland	158,476	0.3%
59	Sweden	157,248	0.3%
60	Paraguay	152,901	0.3%
61	Zimbabwe	149,364	0.3%
62	Japan	140,761	0.3%
63	Norway	140,645	0.3%
64	Germany	134,916	0.3%
65	Republic of Congo	131,854	0.3%
66	Malaysia	126,854	0.3%
67	Côte d’Ivoire	122,780	0.2%
68	Vietnam	121,016	0.2%
69	Oman	119,499	0.2%
70	Poland	118,251	0.2%
71	Finland	117,360	0.2%
72	Philippines	115,124	0.2%
73	Italy	114,178	0.2%
74	Burkina Faso	105,638	0.2%
75	New Zealand	101,665	0.2%
76	Gabon	99,487	0.2%
77	Ecuador	95,892	0.2%
78	Guinea	94,873	0.2%
79	UK	93,410	0.2%
80	Laos	89,112	0.2%
81	Romania	88,834	0.2%
82	Ghana	87,851	0.2%
83	Guyana	81,522	0.2%
84	Belarus	78,372	0.2%
85	Uganda	77,421	0.2%
86	Senegal	74,336	0.1%
87	Kyrgyzstan	74,054	0.1%
88	Syria	70,900	0.1%
89	Cambodia	68,155	0.1%
90	Uruguay	67,576	0.1%
91	Suriname	61,972	0.1%
92	Tunisia	59,985	0.1%
93	Nepal	55,348	0.1%
94	Tajikistan	53,587	0.1%
95	Bangladesh	50,186	0.1%
96	Greece	49,769	0.1%
97	Eritrea	46,787	0.1%
98	North Korea	46,491	0.1%
99	Nicaragua	46,464	0.1%
100	Benin	43,537	0.1%
101	Honduras	43,201	0.1%
102	Bulgaria	41,915	0.1%
103	Guatemala	41,375	0.1%
104	Cuba	40,077	0.1%
105	Iceland	38,931	0.1%
106	South Korea	37,684	0.1%
107	Liberia	37,189	0.1%
108	Malawi	36,402	0.1%
109	Portugal	35,369	0.1%
110	Hungary	35,236	0.1%
111	Jordan	34,284	0.1%
112	Serbia	32,467	0.1%
113	Azerbaijan	31,911	0.1%
114	Austria	31,861	0.1%
115	Czechia	29,794	0.1%
116	Panama	28,641	0.1%
117	Sierra Leone	27,869	0.1%
118	UAE	27,421	0.1%
119	Georgia	26,830	0.1%
120	Ireland	26,599	0.1%
121	Lithuania	24,170	0.05%
122	Latvia	24,027	0.05%
123	Sri Lanka	23,884	0.05%
124	Croatia	21,606	0.04%
125	Togo	21,000	0.04%
126	Bosnia and Herzegovina	19,768	0.04%
127	Costa Rica	19,714	0.04%
128	Dominican Republic	18,609	0.04%
129	Slovakia	18,564	0.04%
130	Estonia	16,498	0.03%
131	Denmark	15,444	0.03%
132	Switzerland	15,255	0.03%
133	Bhutan	14,726	0.03%
134	Netherlands	13,000	0.03%
135	Moldova	12,714	0.03%
136	Belgium	11,774	0.02%
137	Lesotho	11,722	0.02%
138	Armenia	10,888	0.02%
139	Guinea-Bissau	10,857	0.02%
140	Equatorial Guinea	10,830	0.02%
141	Solomon Islands	10,807	0.02%
142	Haiti	10,641	0.02%
143	Albania	10,579	0.02%
144	Burundi	9,915	0.02%
145	North Macedonia	9,737	0.02%
146	Rwanda	9,525	0.02%
147	Djibouti	8,950	0.02%
148	Belize	8,807	0.02%
149	Israel	8,355	0.02%
150	El Salvador	8,000	0.02%
151	Slovenia	7,774	0.02%
152	New Caledonia	7,058	0.01%
153	Fiji	7,054	0.01%
154	Kuwait	6,880	0.01%
155	Eswatini	6,641	0.01%
156	Timor-Leste	5,741	0.01%
157	Montenegro	5,193	0.01%
158	Vanuatu	4,707	0.01%
159	Qatar	4,436	0.01%
160	Jamaica	4,181	0.01%
161	Lebanon	3,950	0.01%
162	Gambia	3,907	0.01%
163	Bahamas	3,865	0.01%
164	Cyprus	3,568	0.01%
165	Puerto Rico	3,425	0.01%
166	West Bank and Gaza	2,326	0.0%
167	Brunei Darussalam	2,035	0.0%
168	Trinidad and Tobago	1,981	0.0%
169	Cabo Verde	1,556	0.0%
170	French Polynesia	1,340	0.0%
171	Samoa	1,073	0.0%
172	Luxembourg	994	0.0%
173	Mauritius	771	0.0%
174	Comoros	719	0.0%
175	Faroe Islands	529	0.0%
176	Hong Kong SAR	405	0.0%
177	Sao Tome and Principe	371	0.0%
178	Turks and Caicos Islands	367	0.0%
179	Kiribati	313	0.0%
180	Bahrain	309	0.0%
181	Dominica	290	0.0%
182	Tonga	278	0.0%
183	Singapore	277	0.0%
184	Micronesia	270	0.0%
185	St. Lucia	236	0.0%
186	Isle of Man	220	0.0%
187	Guam	208	0.0%
188	Andorra	181	0.0%
189	Seychelles	178	0.0%
190	Palau	178	0.0%
191	Northern Mariana Islands	178	0.0%
192	Curacao	171	0.0%
193	Antigua and Barbuda	170	0.0%
194	Barbados	166	0.0%
195	St. Vincent and the Grenadines	151	0.0%
196	Virgin Islands	135	0.0%
197	Grenada	131	0.0%
198	Malta	124	0.0%
199	Maldives	115	0.0%
200	St. Kitts and Nevis	100	0.0%
201	Cayman Islands	93	0.0%
202	American Samoa	77	0.0%
203	Channel Islands	76	0.0%
204	Aruba	69	0.0%
205	Marshall Islands	69	0.0%
206	Liechtenstein	62	0.0%
207	British Virgin Islands	58	0.0%
208	San Marino	23	0.0%
209	Bermuda	21	0.0%
210	St. Martin (French part)	19	0.0%
211	Sint Maarten (Dutch part)	13	0.0%
212	Macao SAR	13	0.0%
213	Tuvalu	12	0.0%
214	Naoero	8	0.0%
215	Gibraltar	4	0.0%
216	Monaco	1	0.0%
—	Total Land Area	50,102,095	100.0%

Asia accounts for 31.8% of the world’s land area in the dataset, the largest share of any region. Russia is classified under Asia because roughly 77% of its territory lies there, despite most Russians living in the European portion of the country.

The Middle East accounts for another 4.8% of global land, slightly exceeding Europe’s 4.4% share when Russia is excluded. Saudi Arabia, the region’s largest country, ranks 12th globally by land area.

Land area can also produce some counterintuitive rankings because lakes are excluded. The Great Lakes alone cover more than 94,000 square miles across the U.S. and Canada, forming the world’s largest body of surface freshwater.

Africa’s Sheer Scale

Africa presents a different picture. Rather than being dominated by one enormous country, its land is spread across a long list of large nations.

Twenty-one African countries rank among the world’s 50 largest by land area, more than any other region. Yet Algeria, Africa’s largest country, ranks only 10th globally.

Its true scale is often obscured by map projections. Africa has roughly 14 times the land area of Greenland, which appears much larger relative to Africa on a Mercator map.

The U.S. and Canada Are Bigger Than South America

North America offers another comparison that is easy to miss on a conventional world map.

The U.S. and Canada together span over 6.9 million square miles of land, more than all of South America combined. Brazil alone accounts for nearly half of South America’s land area, followed by Argentina, Peru, and Colombia.

One of the ranking’s biggest surprises is the U.S. finishing ahead of Canada. Canada is larger by total surface area, but its vast network of lakes changes the order when inland water is excluded. By land area, the U.S. ranks third globally and Canada fourth.

Learn More on the Voronoi App

To learn more about this topic, check out this graphic on the countries with the most freshwater.

• Source: https://www.visualcapitalist.com/ranked-the-worlds-largest-countries-by-land-area/