Largest Countries on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
This is a list of the world's countries and their dependencies, ranked by total area, including land and water.
This list includes entries that are not limited to those in the
''Encyclopaedia Britannica'': List of the world's countries, dependencies, and territories by total area
* https://www.sciencefocus.com/planet-earth/largest-countries-in-the-world * https://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/countries_by_area.htm * https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/field/area/country-comparison/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Countries and dependencies by area, List of Lists by area
This is a list of the world's countries and their dependencies, ranked by total area, including land and water.
This list includes entries that are not limited to those in the ISO 3166-1
ISO 3166-1 (''Codes for the representation of names of countries and their subdivisions – Part 1: Country code'') is a standard defining codes for the names of countries, dependent territories, and special areas of geographical interest. It i ...
standard, which covers sovereign state
A sovereign state is a State (polity), state that has the highest authority over a territory. It is commonly understood that Sovereignty#Sovereignty and independence, a sovereign state is independent. When referring to a specific polity, the ter ...
s and dependent territories
A dependent territory, dependent area, or dependency (sometimes referred as an external territory) is a territory that does not possess full political independence or sovereignty as a sovereign state and remains politically outside the control ...
. All 193 member states of the United Nations
The United Nations comprise sovereign states and the world's largest intergovernmental organization. All members have equal representation in the UN General Assembly.
The Charter of the United Nations defines the rules for admission of ...
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
State most commonly refers to:
* State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory
**Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country
**Nation state, a ...
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
Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean (also known as the Antarctic Ocean), it contains the geographic South Pole. ...
or entities such as the European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...
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, reservoir
A reservoir (; ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam, usually built to water storage, store fresh water, often doubling for hydroelectric power generation.
Reservoirs are created by controlling a watercourse that drains an existing body of wa ...
s, and rivers) within international boundaries and coastlines. Coastal internal waters
According to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, a nation's internal waters include waters on the side of the baseline of a nation's territorial waters that is facing toward the land, except in archipelagic states. It includes wa ...
may be included. Territorial seas are not included unless otherwise noted. Contiguous zones and exclusive economic zone
An exclusive economic zone (EEZ), as prescribed by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, is an area of the sea in which a sovereign state has exclusive rights regarding the exploration and use of marine natural resource, reso ...
s are not included.
Total area is taken from the United Nations Statistics Division
The United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), formerly the United Nations Statistical Office, serves under the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) as the central mechanism within the Secretariat of the United Nations ...
unless otherwise noted. Land and water are taken from the Food and Agriculture Organization
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations; . (FAO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger and improve nutrition and food security. Its Latin motto, , translates ...
unless otherwise noted. The CIA ''World Factbook'' is most often used when different UN departments disagree. Other sources and details for each entry may be specified in the relevant footnote.
Countries and dependencies by area
See also
*List of countries and dependencies by population density
This is a list of countries and dependencies ranked by population density, sorted by habitants per square kilometre or square mile. The list includes sovereign states and self-governing dependent territories based upon the ISO standard ISO 31 ...
* List of countries and dependencies by population
This is a list of countries and dependencies by population. It includes sovereign states, inhabited dependent territories and, in some cases, constituent countries of sovereign states, with inclusion within the list being primarily based on ...
* List of largest cities
The United Nations uses three definitions for what constitutes a city, as not all cities in all jurisdictions are classified using the same criteria. Cities may be defined as the cities proper, the extent of their urban area, or their metrop ...
* List of largest empires
Several empires in human history have been contenders for the largest of all time, depending on definition and mode of measurement. Possible ways of measuring size include area, population, economy, and power. Of these, area is the most commonly ...
* Lists of political and geographic subdivisions by total area
This is an index of a series of comprehensive lists of continents, countries, and first level administrative country subdivisions such as states, provinces, and territories, as well as certain political and geographic features of substantial area ...
* List of sovereign states
The following is a list providing an overview of sovereign states around the world with information on their status and recognition of their sovereignty.
The 205 listed states can be divided into three categories based on membership with ...
* Orders of magnitude (area)
This page is a progressive and labelled list of the SI area orders of magnitude, with certain examples appended to some list objects.
to square metres
10−8 to 10−1 square metres
100 to 107 square metres
108 to 1014 square metres
101 ...
Notes
References
External links
''Encyclopaedia Britannica'': List of the world's countries, dependencies, and territories by total area
* https://www.sciencefocus.com/planet-earth/largest-countries-in-the-world * https://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/countries_by_area.htm * https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/field/area/country-comparison/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Countries and dependencies by area, List of Lists by area
Area
Area is the measure of a region's size on a surface. The area of a plane region or ''plane area'' refers to the area of a shape or planar lamina, while '' surface area'' refers to the area of an open surface or the boundary of a three-di ...
Geography-related lists
Area
Area is the measure of a region's size on a surface. The area of a plane region or ''plane area'' refers to the area of a shape or planar lamina, while '' surface area'' refers to the area of an open surface or the boundary of a three-di ...