What Are the World's Biggest Countries?

world

According to the CIA World Factbook, the total surface area of the earth is 510,072,000 square kilometers (196,939,900 square miles). Of this, 70.8% is water and 29.2% is land. The chart below organizes the top 25 countries (including Antarctica) in terms of size, starting with the biggest, Russia. Note that the sizes depict total area which includes the land and water within each country's borders.

country sq. km sq. miles size
Russia 17,075,200 6,592,772 Size of Russia
Antarctica 14,000,000 5,405,430 Size of Antarctica
Canada 9,976,140 3,851,809 Size of Canada
United States 9,629,091 3,717,813 Size of United States
China 9,596,960 3,705,407 Size of China
Brazil 8,511,965 3,286,488 Size of Brazil
Australia 7,686,850 2,967,909 Size of Australia
India 3,287,590 1,269,346 Size of India
Argentina 2,766,890 1,068,302 Size of Argentina
Kazakhstan 2,717,300 1,049,155 Size of Kazakhstan
Sudan 2,505,810 967,499 Size of Sudan
Algeria 2,381,740 919,595 Size of Algeria
D.R. Congo 2,345,410 905,568 Size of Democratic Republic of Congo
Greenland 2,166,086 836,330 Size of Greenland
Saudi Arabia 1,960,582 761,606 Size of Saudi Arabia
Mexico 1,972,550 756,985 Size of Mexico
Indonesia 1,919,440 741,100 Size of Indonesia
Libya 1,759,540 679,362 Size of Libya
Iran 1,648,000 636,296 Size of Iran
Mongolia 1,565,000 604,250 Size of Mongolia
Peru 1,285,220 496,226 Size of Peru
Chad 1,284,000 495,755 Size of Chad
Niger 1,267,000 489,191 Size of Niger
Angola 1,246,700 481,354 Size of Angola
Mali 1,240,000 478,767 Size of Mali
country sq. km sq. miles size

Array

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11
how is greenland not bigger than D.R Congo?

that makes no sense.

- anon44279
10
Well let's settle this arguement Gentlemen! If Russia is in Europe and it has it's own borders then it is the biggest country!
- anon40006
9
Why is nigeria not listed in this article, among the biggest nations?
- anon38446
7
"Posted by: evchef

Actually, since Greenland (Grøndland) is part of Denmark, it is therefore a part of Europe (Europa) and Scandanavia (Scandinavien). That should make Denmark the biggest country in Europe."

that is not accurate, since Russia is the largest one in Europe. Despite the fact that the biggest part of it's territory is situated in Asia, its capital - Moscow is in Europe and therefore it's counted as european Country. If you compare only pure european territory, again Denmark is not the biggest, because Greenland (physiographically) is associated with North America, and again Ukraine is the biggest. I am writing this because I had a similar dispute with a colleague of mine...

- anon9431
6
Actually, since Greenland (Grøndland) is part of Denmark, it is therefore a part of Europe (Europa) and Scandanavia (Scandinavien). That should make Denmark the biggest country in Europe.

- evchef
4
The thing about Russia is that in this article it states that Michail Gorbachev was the General Secretary, but that was only at the beginning. Then he became a first and only president of USSR.
- anon3438
2
According to my cursory research, the three largest countries in Europe (since the split up of the USSR) are the Ukraine, followed by France and Spain. I was surprised...
- Dayton
1
what are the three biggest countries in europe?

- anon577

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Source: CIA World Factbook 2002

Last Modified: 06 November 2009

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