Top 9 Countries with the Largest Landmasses

Liz April 26, 2023 | 08:59

What are the largest countries in the world? Maps can be deceiving, so it's best to measure this by their actual square mileage. Scroll down to check out the top 9 biggest countries in the world by land area.

Top 9 Biggest Countries in the World by Population (Updated)

Photo: World Atlas

Everyone has heard of the 9 biggest ones. However, you will find the top 100 represented in the table below much more interesting and useful.

There are many different nations on Earth, and some of them, like Russia, Canada, the United States of America, China, Brazil, and Australia, are truly massive. They cover enormous areas and span multiple continents.

Accurate measurements of each country's total area (including land and water surfaces) are provided here. In addition, you can see that they share land borders with their neighboring countries.

Listed below are the nine countries with the largest landmasses, measured in square miles:

1. Russia (6,599,921 square miles)

2. Canada (3,854,083 square miles)

3. China (3,746,887 square miles)

4. United States (3,617,827 square miles)

5. Brazil (3,287,086 square miles)

6. Australia (2,969,121 square miles)

7. India (1,269,010 square miles)

8. Argentina (1,073,234 square miles)

9. Kazakhstan (1,051,811 square miles)

Flag Map of Russia. Photo: Wikipedia

Unsurprisingly, Russia, at a whopping 17,098,242 km2, dominates the list of largest countries. This is followed by much smaller but still very large Canada (9,984,670 km2) and China (9,706,961 km2), and then the United States (9,372,610 km2) and Brazil (8,515,767 km2) round out the top five. This means that three countries in the Americas are among the top five largest in the world.

China, with a total land area of 9,706,961 km2, is the largest country in Asia, while Macau, an autonomous region on China's southern coast, is the smallest at only 30 km2. Africa's landmass ranges from Algeria's 2.381 million square kilometers to Mayotte's 374 square kilometers in the Indian Ocean. France, at 551,695 km2, is Western Europe's largest country, but it barely cracks the top fifty, making it smaller than Russia, which occupies the entire European landmass.

Many of the world's smallest countries are located on islands, with Europe, Oceania, and the Americas accounting for the vast majority. After Monaco (2.02 sq. km) and Gibraltar (6 sq. km), the tiniest country in the world is Vatican City (0.44 sq. km). Tokelau (12 km2) and Nauru (21 km2) are the next largest islands in the Oceania region. Sint Maarten and Saint Martin in the Caribbean are the smallest countries in the Americas, at 34 and 53 km2 respectively.

Some people may consider a country's population when assessing its size. China, India, the United States, Indonesia, and Pakistan have the largest populations.

NOTE: Country rankings aren't definitive; instead they provide an approximate comparison. Country data vary enormously depending on the sources, and there is an absence of reliable data on some countries..

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