According to the CIA World Factbook, the total surface area of the earth is 510,072,000 square kilometers (196,939,900 square miles). Of this, 70.8% is water and 29.2% is land. The chart below organizes the top 25 countries in terms of size, starting with the biggest, Russia. Though it’s not a self-governing country, as a reference point, Antarctica is about 14,000,000 square km (5,405,430 square miles).
Note that the sizes depict total area, which includes the land and water within each country’s borders. Greenland, although an overseas administrative division of Denmark, is included here because it is self-governing.
country
sq. km
sq. miles
size
Russia
17,098,242
6,601,668
Canada
9,984,670
3,855,102
United States
9,826,675
3,794,100
China
9,596,961
3,705,407
Brazil
8,514,877
3,287,612
Australia
7,741,220
2,988,901
India
3,287,263
1,269,219
Argentina
2,780,400
1,073,518
Kazakhstan
2,724,900
1,052,089
Algeria
2,381,741
919,595
D.R. Congo
2,344,858
905,355
Greenland
2,166,086
836,330
Saudi Arabia
2,149,690
830,000
Mexico
1,964,375
758,449
Indonesia
1,904,569
735,358
Sudan
1,861,484
718,723
Libya
1,759,540
679,362
Iran
1,648,195
636,371
Mongolia
1,564,116
603,908
Peru
1,285,216
496,224
Chad
1,284,000
495,755
Niger
1,267,000
489,191
Angola
1,246,700
481,353
Mali
1,240,192
478,840
South Africa
1,219,090
470,693
country
sq. km
sq. miles
size