List of countries and dependencies by area

"List of largest countries" redirects here. For the largest countries by population, see List of countries and dependencies by population.

Dymaxion map of the world with the 30 largest countries and territories by area

This is a list of the world's countries and their dependencies by land, water, and total area, ranked by total area.

The entries in this list include, but are not limited to, those in the ISO 3166-1 standard, which includes sovereign states and dependent territories. All 193 member states of the United Nations plus the two observer states are given a rank number. Largely unrecognised states not in ISO 3166-1 are included in the list in ranked order. The areas of such largely unrecognised states are in most cases also included in the areas of the more widely recognised states that claim the same territory; see the notes in the "Notes" column for each country for clarification.

Not included in the list are individual country claims to parts of the continent of Antarctica or entities such as the European Union[a] that have some degree of sovereignty but do not consider themselves to be sovereign countries or dependent territories.

This list includes three measurements of area:

  • Total area: the sum of land and water areas within international boundaries and coastlines.
  • Land area: the aggregate of all land within international boundaries and coastlines, excluding water area.
  • Water area: the sum of the surface areas of all inland water bodies (lakes, reservoirs, and rivers) within international boundaries and coastlines.[2] Coastal internal waters may be included. Territorial seas are not included unless otherwise noted. Contiguous zones and exclusive economic zones are not included.

Total area is taken from the United Nations Statistics Division unless otherwise noted.[3] Land and water are taken from the Food and Agriculture Organization unless otherwise noted.[4] The CIA World Factbook is most often used when different UN departments disagree.[1] Other sources and details for each entry may be specified in the relevant footnote.

  1. ^ a b "Country Comparisons - Area". CIA. 6 July 2023. Archived from the original on 4 February 2021. Retrieved 8 July 2023.
  2. ^ Central Intelligence Agency. "Definitions and notes: Area". The World Factbook. Government of the United States. Archived from the original on 18 April 2022. Retrieved 3 October 2023.
  3. ^ Under "World Summary", see Table 3 and select 'pdf' or 'xls'."Demographic Yearbook – 2022". unstats.un.org. 2023. Archived from the original on 22 December 2023. Retrieved 26 December 2023.
  4. ^ "FAOSTAT". fao.org. Archived from the original on 12 November 2016. Retrieved 3 January 2024.


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