The largest countries in the world· by land area
The largest country in the world is Russia, which covers about 16.4 million km² of land — roughly 12.62% of every acre of ground on Earth. Next come China and United States. Across 216 countries with data, the scale runs from there all the way down to Monaco at just 2 km².
One thing worth knowing up front: this ranks land area, the ground itself, with inland lakes, rivers and the sea taken out. That is why the figure for Russia here (about 16.4 million km²) sits a little below the ~17.1 million km² "total area" often quoted, which counts inland water too. The same gap applies to China, Canada and the United States. Antarctica has no permanent population and is governed by treaty, so it is not a country and is not ranked.
Where the largest countries are
The deep color marks the countries with the most land. Six of them straddle whole continents; the rest of the map is a scatter of much smaller states. The map and the ranked list beside it move together. The largest are labeled; hover or tap any country to read its land area.
Tap a country to read its figure.
Natural Earth 10m · Crimea shown as Ukraine · source: World Bank, CC BY 4.0
Every country, ranked from the largest down
The complete table, largest first. Click a column to sort. The first number is land area; its share of the world's land and the country's population sit beside it, because a huge country is not always a crowded one.
| # ▲ | Country | Land area | Share of land | Population |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Russia | 16,376,870 km² | 12.62% | 143,513,328 |
| 2 |  China | 9,388,210 km² | 7.23% | 1,406,585,000 |
| 3 |  United States | 9,147,420 km² | 7.05% | 341,784,857 |
| 4 |  Canada | 8,788,700 km² | 6.77% | 41,651,653 |
| 5 |  Brazil | 8,358,140 km² | 6.44% | 212,812,405 |
| 6 |  Australia | 7,692,020 km² | 5.93% | 27,614,411 |
| 7 |  India | 2,973,190 km² | 2.29% | 1,463,865,525 |
| 8 |  Argentina | 2,736,690 km² | 2.11% | 45,851,378 |
| 9 |  Kazakhstan | 2,699,700 km² | 2.08% | 20,843,754 |
| 10 |  Algeria | 2,381,740 km² | 1.84% | 47,435,312 |
| 11 |  DR Congo | 2,267,050 km² | 1.75% | 112,832,473 |
| 12 |  Saudi Arabia | 2,149,690 km² | 1.66% | 36,973,555 |
| 13 |  Mexico | 1,943,950 km² | 1.50% | 131,946,900 |
| 14 |  Indonesia | 1,892,555 km² | 1.46% | 285,721,236 |
| 15 |  Sudan | 1,868,000 km² | 1.44% | 51,662,147 |
What "largest" really measures here
This ranking uses land area: the ground inside a country's borders, measured in square kilometres, from the World Bank. It is the standard one-number answer to "how big is this country," and it puts Russia first by a wide margin, at about 16.4 million km². That is a genuine measure of extent — the physical size of a nation's territory.
One detail changes the numbers you may have seen elsewhere. Land area leaves out inland water — the lakes, reservoirs and major rivers inside a country — and it stops at the coast, so coastal and territorial seas are not counted. That is why Russia reads about 16.4 million km² here rather than the ~17.1 million km² "total area" quoted in almanacs, which folds inland water back in. Canada, the United States and China all shrink a little the same way, since each holds a lot of lake and river surface. Rank order barely moves; the totals do.
Two boundaries are worth naming. Antarctica is larger than any country on this list, but it has no permanent population and is held in common under the Antarctic Treaty, so it is not a state and does not appear. And some large countries administer dependent territories far from home; those are counted under their own entries where the data separates them, not folded into the parent. Read the ranking for what it is: the land each recognised country actually holds, as the World Bank reports it.
A big country is not always a crowded one
Some of the largest countries by land are among the emptiest by people per square kilometre. The scatter puts land against population, so the mismatch is visible.
How to read: each dot is a country. Far right = a lot of land. High up = a lot of people. Russia, Canada and Australia sit low on the right: enormous, but thinly peopled. India sits to the upper left: less land than any of them, yet the most people on Earth.
Five numbers worth remembering
The same dataset, squeezed into the facts people actually retell.
Where does a country stand?
Numbers land harder when one of them is a place you know.
Frequently asked questions
What is the largest country in the world?
By land area, Russia is the largest country in the world, covering about 16.4 million km² — roughly 12.62% of all the land on Earth. China (9.39 million km²) and United States (9.15 million km²) come next. These are World Bank figures for 2023, and they measure land only, with inland water and the sea left out.
Why is Russia so much bigger than everyone else?
Russia spans northern Asia and eastern Europe across eleven time zones, and no other single state stretches that far. At about 16.4 million km² it is nearly twice the land of the next country, China. Much of it is sparsely settled — Siberia and the Arctic north — which is why a country that large can still hold fewer people than several smaller ones.
Is land area the same as total area?
No, and the difference matters. Total area adds inland water — lakes, reservoirs and major rivers — back on top of the land, and sometimes coastal waters too. Land area, the figure used here, is the dry ground alone. That is why Russia reads about 16.4 million km² on this page but around 17.1 million km² in almanacs that quote total area. The World Bank publishes the land-only number, so that is what we rank.
What are the ten largest countries in the world?
By land area, the ten largest are Russia, China and United States at the top, followed by Canada, the United States, Brazil, Australia, India, Argentina and Kazakhstan. Together those ten hold about 54% of the world's land, though only a small share of its people. Figures are World Bank land area for 2023.
Is Antarctica bigger than Russia?
Yes, Antarctica's surface is larger than Russia's — about 14 million km² of ice-covered land. But Antarctica is not a country: it has no permanent population and is governed jointly under the Antarctic Treaty, with territorial claims frozen. Because it is not a state, it is not part of this ranking, which lists the largest recognised countries only.
How many countries are larger than a million square kilometres?
28 of the 216 countries on this list cover more than 1 million km² of land. For scale, a million square kilometres is larger than Egypt or roughly four times the size of the United Kingdom. Below that line the countries get small fast: the median country covers only about 94,280 km².
Sources & further reading
Every figure here is built on one open dataset: the World Bank's Land area, sq. km (AG.LND.TOTL.K2), released under CC BY 4.0.