Ever looked at a classroom map and thought Greenland looks as big as Africa? It's a total lie. Or, well, a mathematical necessity called the Mercator projection. If you’re hunting for a real-deal list of countries by area size, you have to look past the distorted rectangles we grew up with. Maps are flat; the Earth is a bumpy, stubborn sphere.
Geography is messy.
When we talk about the biggest nations, we’re usually measuring total area—that’s land plus all the lakes and rivers inside the borders. But honestly, even that gets tricky depending on who you ask. Do you count coastal waters? Disputed territories? The ice in Antarctica?
The top of the list of countries by area size: The Heavyweights
Russia is massive. There’s just no other way to put it. It takes up about $11%$ of the entire world’s landmass. You could fit the United States into Russia twice and still have room for a few smaller European nations. It spans 11 time zones. If you’re having breakfast in Kaliningrad, someone in Vladivostok is basically getting ready for bed.
Then you have Canada. It’s the second largest, but it’s kind of a "water kingdom." Canada has more lakes than the rest of the world combined. If you drained all that water, it would actually be smaller than China and the U.S. in terms of raw land.
China vs. USA: The battle for third place
This is where the list of countries by area size gets political.
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Most official sources, like the UN or the CIA World Factbook, have the United States and China neck-and-neck. Usually, the U.S. is ranked third, but only because it includes "coastal and territorial waters." If you just look at land and inland water, China often edges it out.
China: Roughly 9.6 million square kilometers.
USA: Roughly 9.4 to 9.8 million square kilometers (depending on how much ocean you count).
It’s a bit of a "choose your own adventure" situation for cartographers.
Moving down the scale: The Southern Giants
Brazil takes the fifth spot, and it's basically the king of South America. It’s huge enough to border almost every other country on the continent except for Ecuador and Chile. Most of that space is the Amazon, which is essentially a giant green lung for the planet.
Australia comes in sixth. It’s the only country that’s also its own continent. People forget how empty it is. You have this massive 7.6 million square kilometer block of land, but most of the population is huddled on the coasts because the "Red Centre" is so unforgiving.
India sits at number seven. While it’s much smaller than the top three—about 3.3 million square kilometers—it’s arguably the most "utilized" land. Every square inch feels lived in, which is a wild contrast to the empty Siberian tundras or the Canadian north.
The ones you probably forgot about
We usually stop at the top five, but the list of countries by area size has some surprises in the top ten.
Argentina is eighth. It’s long and skinny, stretching from the tropical north down to the icy tip of Tierra del Fuego.
Ninth is Kazakhstan. It’s the largest landlocked country on Earth. Think about that: millions of square kilometers and not a single drop of ocean coastline. Just endless steppe and mountains.
Algeria rounds out the top ten. It’s the largest country in Africa, having taken the title after Sudan split into two back in 2011. Most of it is the Sahara Desert, which is beautiful but, you know, mostly sand.
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A quick look at the "Middle Class" of nations
- DR Congo: Africa's second-largest, dominated by deep jungle.
- Saudi Arabia: Mostly desert, but strategically massive.
- Mexico: Often feels smaller on maps, but it's nearly 2 million square kilometers.
- Indonesia: A giant made of 17,000 islands.
Why size isn't everything (The Greenland Problem)
Greenland is the ultimate map-distorter. On a standard map, it looks like a continent. In reality? It’s about the size of Mexico. It’s big, sure, but it’s not even in the top ten.
Then you have the "microstates." You could fit Vatican City into Russia about 38 million times. Geography is a game of extremes.
How to actually use this data
If you’re planning a trip or studying logistics, don’t just look at the rank. Look at the terrain. A country like Kazakhstan is huge but has very few roads compared to a smaller, denser country like Germany or Japan.
Next Steps for the Curious:
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- Check out The True Size Of website. It lets you drag countries around a map to see how big they actually are without the Mercator distortion. It’ll blow your mind.
- Download an offline map app like Maps.me if you're traveling through the "giants" (Russia, Canada, Australia). Cell service disappears fast in those vast spaces.
- Look into "Land Area" vs "Total Area" if you're doing a deep dive for school or work. The rankings change if you take the water away.
The world is a lot bigger—and smaller—than it looks.