The largest countries in the world
Which country is the biggest? Russia takes up more space than the whole of South America. Below you will find the 15 largest countries on Earth, ranked by area in km², with a sortable table and a bar chart of the top 7. Data are from the CIA World Factbook.
Top 15 by area
Click any column heading to re-sort the table. All figures: CIA World Factbook.
| Rank | Country | Continent | Area (km²) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Russia | Europe/Asia | 17,098,242 |
| 2 | Canada | North America | 9,984,670 |
| 3 | United States | North America | 9,833,517 |
| 4 | China | Asia | 9,596,960 |
| 5 | Brazil | South America | 8,515,770 |
| 6 | Australia | Oceania | 7,692,024 |
| 7 | India | Asia | 3,287,263 |
| 8 | Argentina | South America | 2,780,400 |
| 9 | Kazakhstan | Asia | 2,724,900 |
| 10 | Algeria | Africa | 2,381,741 |
| 11 | DR Congo | Africa | 2,344,858 |
| 12 | Saudi Arabia | Asia | 2,149,690 |
| 13 | Mexico | North America | 1,964,375 |
| 14 | Indonesia | Asia | 1,904,569 |
| 15 | Sudan | Africa | 1,861,484 |
Source: CIA World Factbook (most recent edition).
Bar chart — top 7 by area
Bar width is proportional to the area of the largest country (Russia = 100%).
What the numbers mean
Russia, at 17,098,242 km², is by far the largest country in the world — nearly twice the size of Canada or the United States, and more than four times the size of Brazil. A single country therefore accounts for more than 11% of all land on Earth. For comparison, the whole of Europe covers around 10.2 million km², which is smaller than Russia on its own.
The contrast with number seven, India, is striking: India (3,287,263 km²) is smaller than the size gap between Russia and Canada. Yet nearly 1.5 billion people live there, while Russia has only 144 million inhabitants — a clear illustration that area and population have little to do with each other. See the comparison on the most populous countries page.
Spread across continents
The top 15 includes countries from six of the seven continents — only Antarctica is absent, as it contains no sovereign states. Asia is best represented with five countries (China, India, Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia). Africa has three (Algeria, DR Congo, Sudan), North America three (Canada, United States, Mexico), South America two (Brazil, Argentina), Europe/Asia one (Russia) and Oceania one (Australia).
Notably, Canada and the United States are almost identical in area — the difference is just 151,000 km². North America thus accounts for more than a quarter of the top 15. Compare all continents side by side on the compare page.
Sources
- CIA World Factbook — area data per country (most recent edition)
- United Nations — World Population Prospects 2024 (population context)
- Worldometer 2025 — current estimates per country