This article is rated List-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects:

Countries This article is within the scope of WikiProject Countries, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of countries on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.CountriesWikipedia:WikiProject CountriesTemplate:WikiProject Countriescountry WikiProject Countries to-do list: Here are some tasks awaiting attention: Article requests : Check out the article alerts; see if anything catches your fancy. Cleanup : clean-up listing for Countries Stubs : de-stub articles in Category:Stubs by region. Other : add {{WPCountries}} to talk pages of related articles, and assess. Geography Mid‑importance This article is within the scope of WikiProject Geography, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of geography on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.GeographyWikipedia:WikiProject GeographyTemplate:WikiProject Geographygeography Mid This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale. WikiProject Geography To-do list: Here are some tasks awaiting attention: Article requests : See Requested articles/Social sciences/Geography, cities, regions and named places and Missing articles about Locations Assess : Tag related article talk pages with {{WikiProject Geography}}. To help assess the quality and importance of geography articles, please see: Unassessed geography articles and Unknown-importance geography articles. Cleanup : See Geography articles needing attention Deletion sorting : Listed at Geographic related deletion discussions Geographical coordinates : See Articles missing geocoordinate data by country Infobox : See Geography articles needing infoboxes Map : See Wikipedia requested maps Notability : See Geography articles with topics of unclear notability Photo : See Wikipedia requested photographs of places Stubs : See Geography stubs Lists Mid‑importance This article is within the scope of WikiProject Lists, an attempt to structure and organize all list pages on Wikipedia. If you wish to help, please visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion.ListsWikipedia:WikiProject ListsTemplate:WikiProject ListsList Mid This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

Someone recently incorrectly changed the area of Ukraine. By the CIA World Factbook, it has 603,550 sq km as total area, 579,300 sq km land and 24,220 sqm water. — Preceding unsigned comment added by ~2026-87111-4 (talk) 00:24, 9 February 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Can you please include sources for the correct area using Ukraine's own official data? TJauteur (talk) 17:38, 19 February 2026 (UTC)[reply]

czechia is written as the czech republic although it was renamed from czech republic to czechia in 2016 75.192.219.123 (talk) 19:28, 25 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

You are welcome to change it. 2001:8003:9100:2C01:2CBB:595:7402:F161 (talk) 14:55, 4 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

This article's table apparently does not consider Taiwan (ROC) to be a country, yet the country's own article does. Isn't this an inconsistency? Shouldn't it be considered a country by both or neither, rather than considered a country by one, but not the other? Alex the weeb (talk) 22:10, 1 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

It's both, as are several other places. It depends on who you ask and leads to endless debates with no answer. The criteria chosen is to rely on the ISO 3166-1 and leave it at that. Wizmut (talk) 22:20, 1 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The Republic of China (Taiwan) is one of the eight de facto states in the world. 2001:8003:9100:2C01:2CBB:595:7402:F161 (talk) 14:59, 4 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Of the 264 entries in the table (Countries and dependencies by area):

If you convert km² to mi²:

- the total area is incorrect/inaccurate for 63 entries (3 are off by >10%)

- the total land is incorrect/inaccurate for 86 entries (3 are off by >10%)

- the total water is incorrect/inaccurate for 80 entries (10 are off by >10% and 2 are off by >25%)

Should total area be equal to total water + total area?

- if so, then we can calculate total water for 89 entries

- and not sure what would account for the discrepancy between the values for total water and total area - total land for 72 entries) - Palestine's total land is greater than the total area (6025 > 6020)

- % water is incorrect/inaccurate for 10 entries (Cayman Islands should be 9.1%, not 0%) duswls (talk) 15:44, 19 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Some of the apparent inaccuracy could be due to rounding. The UNFAO source rounds to the nearest 10 km2. When I updated many of the values, I took each figure straight from a given source, but sometimes had to use different sources for the same location. If the note for a given entry doesn't seem to give good reasons for why each figure comes from each source, then by all means some figures could be swapped out using different sources. The footnote could also then be updated to reflect any important differences between sources.

For km2 to mi2 inaccuracy, Template:Convert will by default convert with respect the number of significant figures given. So the Maldives is rounded a lot, for example. In cases where this is too much rounding, that template documentation page gives info on how to specify a certain number of significant figures. Wizmut (talk) 16:05, 19 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the informative reply! duswls (talk) 21:05, 21 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

WP:PIA related discussion that was started by an IP
The following discussion has been closed. Please do not modify it.
Palestine is not recognized as a country. However Israel is a recognized country, which prior to its independence from the British rule was named Palestine. This page should be factual not political 84.110.98.54 (talk) 10:58, 10 November 2024 (UTC)[reply] See International recognition of the State of Palestine. Wizmut (talk) 11:05, 10 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

total area of guinea bissau is higher rhan Taiwan. TrueMoriarty (talk) 12:33, 16 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Fixed Good catch! Wizmut (talk) 12:51, 16 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

👍 TrueMoriarty (talk) 15:51, 16 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Should be count france as amongst the top-10 bigest contry because of ot's maritime territory, considering with only it's maritime territory it is bigger than canada? Igotzsomegutidezz (talk) 20:26, 20 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Territorial waters are not included unless no other figure can be found. Wizmut (talk) 20:41, 20 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

What's the reasoning behind it? It's just an arbitrary constraint imposed upon this article. TJauteur (talk) 17:35, 19 February 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Bro, this is crazy. A country's EEZ is not really a part of its sovereign territory. EEZ is more like a region which you can enjoy some special rights, but you don't have outright ownership of this region. In a real life example, you bought a ground floor apartment, there is a small garden which only you can use, but on the title, you don't own this piece of land. It is classified as "common property". 2001:8003:9100:2C01:2CBB:595:7402:F161 (talk) 15:13, 4 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

That's not a good example because your house's front yard is exclusively your property, though you need to meet certain requirements to keep it as such. TJauteur (talk) 17:34, 19 February 2026 (UTC)[reply]

I absolutely agree with you, but can you please show your calculations as to how you reached that figure TJauteur (talk) 17:35, 19 February 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Hi there, may we change the Water column in the table to cubic km? I know this would be correct by the data for Australia for example. We can refer to Margat's UN IGRAC resource, Groundwater Around the World, where we'll see groundwater volumes with similar figures to yours, but it's in cubic km of course, as it's a volume. Sorry to critique a tiny typo in a superb resource. Link: https://www.un-igrac.org/resource/groundwater-around-world Just a small aquitard here - someone with skill might need to check out my advice eh :) RustyTheAquitard (talk) 13:49, 29 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Area is the chosen measure of this table. Volume would probably be a different table. Wizmut (talk) 14:08, 29 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Our own sources state that the UN, CIA, and Britannica all rank USA above China. Why are we defying the overwhelming sources in favour of that ranking? An asterisk is one thing, but instead we're literally ranking China higher Jozsefs (talk) 11:04, 7 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Have you read the note? The sources include coastal waters and territorial sea for the United States but not for China. If we exclude coastal waters and territorial sea, China is actually bigger than the United States. According to this old article published by sina.com in 2006 (in Chinese), if China formally publishes the areas of its coastal waters and territorial sea, its total area could be over 12 million sq. km, making China the second-largest country in the world, even bigger than Canada.

Most countries do not include their coastal waters and territorial sea in their land areas. For example, the area of Australia would be 8.1 million sq. km if their coastal waters are included (source: https://www.ga.gov.au/scientific-topics/national-location-information/dimensions/area-of-australia-states-and-territories). If we include their territorial sea (12 nautical miles from the territorial sea baseline), Australia's area will be even bigger!

The sources are not treating each country fairly, so we need to make some adjustments to make it a impartial table. Vic Park (talk) 00:16, 26 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Because according to the United Nations, China is slightly larger than the United States:

https://www.weforum.org/stories/2021/01/earth-surface-ocean-visualization-science-countries-russia-canada-china/ 139.218.254.63 (talk) 10:30, 14 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Yemen's land area has been found to not be 572,000 km², rather being closer to 455,000 km², as is shown in this article https://theborys.substack.com/p/what-is-the-size-of-yemen. The land area has since been corrected in the main Yemen article, but has not in this one. AnatidaeMapping (talk) 22:06, 13 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

A similar author/amateur came to a similar conclusion in 2022 or earlier[1]. That sort of source is usually not preferred, even though it seems obvious that the smaller number is closer to the mark. If we could find an academic coming to the same conclusion that would really make it easy. Wizmut (talk) 22:40, 13 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Actually the Yemen article found a government source with the smaller figure, even better. Wizmut (talk) 22:45, 13 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The user who edited the Yemen article also wrote the blog by the way. But yeah, that source is good. AnatidaeMapping (talk) 02:46, 15 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The Encyclopædia Britannica also states that the area of Yemen is 455,000 sq. km.

Link: https://www.britannica.com/place/Yemen 2001:8003:9078:2401:BC90:5258:B212:812C (talk) 07:18, 26 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

POK and Aksai China is Indias territory. 2402:A00:1B1:1DD4:D5A4:8191:F555:F585 (talk) 03:54, 5 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Kashmir is considered to be a disputed territory by the United Nations. Only the part under Indian de facto control is shown as a part of India. 2001:8003:9100:2C01:CC6E:DD82:4B6E:8088 (talk) 08:38, 5 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Would you then include Ukraine's occupied territories into Russia's? Or Taiwan/Hong Kong's into China's. TJauteur (talk) 17:32, 19 February 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Why not add another column with exclusive economic zone.TrueMoriarty (talk) 04:08, 31 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

It could be its own list article. Looks like a 'best-of' version already exists at Exclusive economic zone#Rankings by area. Wizmut (talk) 11:02, 31 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Also surprised it's not its own list. May draw one up, although it would be even more contentious than this one. CMD (talk) 12:10, 31 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The UN FAO seems to have data on just a few countries, randomly selected:[2]. They helpfully include Czech Republic and Slovenia, which have an EEZ of size 0. But they don't show values for France, US, Australia, etc.

I got pretty much the same results by querying here.[3]. EEZ is found under 'Water'.

The CIA only gives figures for how far out an EEZ goes.[4]

This site will draw a map for you, and has shapefile downloads, but no figures.[5] Helpful in illustrating an article but not good as far as avoiding OR.

Sea Around Us might be good enough.[6] The seem to give a figure for lots of different places, albeit on separate pages. Wizmut (talk) 14:40, 31 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

SeaAroundUs probably good enough as a base, although even that will require some WP:CALC. I suspect a list would end up incorporating a few different sources at different points to handle disputes if nothing else. CMD (talk) 14:49, 31 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I couldn't find an easy way of getting all the data off their site. They have a github but I can't find any data there. I sent them an email. Wizmut (talk) 15:57, 31 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Well, they got back to me, saying I was free to get the data from each page but they wouldn't send it to me in csv form. Disappointing. Wizmut (talk) 19:42, 31 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

It took a good hour of copy/pasting but I have collected most of the summary figures the government-funded source has on its 281 listed locations. The data is on my sandbox (current) (diff) It still requires some cleaning.

Of these figures, the EEZ and maybe year are of greatest interest. The others may be as well, although it would be nice to find sources discussing each metric in the context of comparing different countries/locations. Wizmut (talk) 22:30, 31 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Nice work. The non-EEZ stuff is all fisheries related, so perhaps relevant for a different list. (The IFA seems to be their own novel application.) Of important note, their EEZ areas include territorial and contiguous waters, so the area needs to be explained as including those. CMD (talk) 01:27, 1 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Will the exclusive economic zone area be included in the total area? TrueMoriarty (talk) 04:16, 1 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Just seeing this...at the EEZ article .... If you're having trouble finding sources there's an old version of the page that lists everything see here Moxy🍁 04:20, 1 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Are there sources that add EEZ to internal area and use the sum to compare countries? Wizmut (talk) 20:13, 1 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Did some work to distinguish entries that are the same thing divided up, or integral overseas portions, or external dependencies. (current) (diff)

I am thinking that only sovereigns should be included, because those are the bodies that control EEZs. Unless there is some exception to that logic. The footnote for each entry can explain how it's broken down. Wizmut (talk) 18:42, 1 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The table is nearly done, but all the notes need to be written. And some of the sums may need scrutiny, as in the case of New Zealand, which is the sovereign of some locations but does not include all of those when discussing its EEZ. Wizmut (talk) 21:14, 4 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Isn't it better to put the The 631,930 km2 number from the UNFAO as the land area?Halbared (talk) 22:05, 4 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I would leave it ambiguous because the sources disagree so much. I'm wary of saying we're sure of something we're not. Wizmut (talk) 22:21, 4 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

OK. I edited it because I was on the phone when an interest in the countries by area came upon me thanks to a youtube video, so I checked and adjusted the 'by land' bit of the table, it took me ages to find South Sudan; I thought maybe it was a mistake, bad formatting or maybe it is a disputed place. I came to the laptop saw where it was and added the area, completely missing the fact that the land area is heavily disputed.Halbared (talk) 23:43, 4 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Sudan does not have any land area entered, and no water area number, so when sorted after land area, it's after the vatican. Jalkenburg (talk) 08:25, 25 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

According to statistics reported in the list China gets the 3rd place and United States the 4th place; if you write 3/4 with both together is basically because US can not admit to be less larger than China. AlexanderFreud (talk) 19:30, 16 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, someone has done a map comparison between China (including Taiwan) and the United States (including the Great Lakes). The result is that China is larger.

Link: http://xhslink.com/a/0zvRJyYCdF6cb 2001:8003:9078:2401:A951:1970:CFF:8CF4 (talk) 02:12, 22 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

It seems to me that the area of Somaliland has two versions, one states 137,600 sq. km, another one states 176,120 sq. km. For a small country, 40,000 sq. km is a HUGE difference.

After conducting a quick research, it seems to me that 137,600 sq. km is the area claimed by the Somaliland Government, but somehow it controls more land than it claims. 176,120 sq. km seems to be the area under its de facto control. Somaliland could be the only de facto state which controls more land than it claims. Maybe they are holding more land as a buffer zone between itself and Somalia. If this is true, I reckon we should change the area of Somaliland to 137,600 sq. km since the extra 40,000 sq. km would be considered foreign land under military occupation, similar like Crimea.

Sources stating 137,600 sq. km as the area of Somaliland:

1. https://www.reuters.com/article/economy/factbox-what-is-somaliland-idUSL6376386/
2. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2009/2/24/africas-isolated-state
3. https://www.arabnews.com/node/234968
4. https://www.somalilandbiz.com/country-profile/
5. https://somalilandtours.com/somaliland-map/
6. https://www.afdb.org/fileadmin/uploads/afdb/Documents/Environmental-and-Social-Assessments/Somaliland_-_Water_infrastructure_development_for_resilience_in_Somaliland_program_%E2%80%93_ESMF_Summary.pdf

Sources stating 176,120 or 177,000 sq. km as the area of Somaliland:

1. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-14115069
2. https://www.radiosomaliland.com/
3. https://www.nationalia.info/profile/62/somaliland
4. https://www.refworld.org/reference/countryrep/irbc/1992/en/93014
5. https://dbpedia.org/page/Somaliland
6. https://artsandculture.google.com/entity/somaliland/m0dkly?hl=en

2001:8003:9078:2401:BC90:5258:B212:812C (talk) 08:33, 26 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The water area of Sudan seams to be very wrong. 129,000 km² would mean that its territorial waters stretch almost into Saudi Arabia. There simply isn't enough space within 12 nm to fit that area. And I highly doubt that the internal waters could change too much about that either. 2A02:3102:6D70:B300:D57:807B:4F90:C27A (talk) 13:21, 28 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]

This is according to the CIA World Factbook, which says 129,813 sq km. It says: "Water area is the sum of the surfaces of all inland water bodies, such as lakes, reservoirs, or rivers, as delimited by international boundaries and/or coastlines."[7] Mellk (talk) 14:02, 28 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Tap on a clip to paste it in the text box. 36.37.198.100 (talk) 15:10, 9 September 2025 (UTC)[reply]

This note ("as") is incorrect:

"Data is from the UK Office for National Statistics as supplied to the UN. Excludes the three Crown Dependencies (768 km2) or the 14 British Overseas Territories (1,742,857 km2), each shown separately"

Actually these 2 overesea territories are missing:

British Antarctic Territory British Indian Ocean Territory

They should be either added to the list or the exclusion mentioned in the note. Kava91 (talk) 10:00, 13 September 2025 (UTC)[reply]

No Antarctic territories are included. BIOT appears to have been removed earlier this year in a bit of over-reading the agreement, however it is likely that edit will become valid soon enough. CMD (talk) 10:12, 13 September 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the quick clarification! 37.76.28.247 (talk) 13:11, 13 September 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Change: Largest country entirely in Asia, and second-largest country in the world by land area. to: Largest country entirely in Asia, and third-largest country in the world by land area. 91.187.89.150 (talk) 15:14, 30 September 2025 (UTC)[reply]

 Not done: "Land area" excludes interior water surfaces, and Canada has a lotta lakes. LizardJr8 (talk) 16:07, 30 September 2025 (UTC)[reply]

While it may seem ridiculous right now, it won't be in the near future with China and US racing towards permanent settlement on the Moon with Artemis and ILRS respectively (2030s). India has plans of its own too starting in 2040. Thought it would be good to have a consensus beforehand. So, how would you add the territories to the tally? A new "Extraterrestrial land" column alongside land and water? a new "Moon" column? Or is it wise to simply follow the suit of Antartica. Footy2000♡; 21:27, 30 September 2025 (UTC)[reply]

As you said, Artemis and IRLS are in 2030s, wiþ India's plans starting in 2040. Maybe we wait 5+ years to see how nations treat þeir space territories. EEZs, for example, aren't listed here, and get þeir own list. Higgs In Space (talk) 14:59, 1 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I just want to edit this page for corrections ~2025-36632-52 (talk) 12:05, 27 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]

 Not done: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format and provide a reliable source if appropriate. GothicGolem29 (Talk) 12:16, 27 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I don't understand why French Guyana is not included in the list. ~2025-37695-58 (talk) 06:25, 1 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

australian antarctic territory is a dependency ~2025-40795-06 (talk) 05:50, 15 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

It should. ~2025-42156-76 (talk) 13:19, 21 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I don't understand why French Guyana is not included in the list. ~2025-37695-58 (talk) 06:27, 1 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Neither is Alaska. They are excluded for the same reason: Each is an integral part of their respective countries. AuH2ORepublican (talk) 11:26, 1 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

But French Guiana has its own ISO country code, Alaska hasn't. Like Greenland, French Guiana is generally considered to be a separate country by the international community. ~2025-42156-76 (talk) 13:18, 21 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

USA, Russia, China are continents and not countries. It's amazing how these continents are being compared with countries like Estonia or Rwanda. What about Africa? ~2025-40548-59 (talk) 09:15, 14 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Excepting Hawaiʻi & overseas territories, the US is part of the North American continent, which also includes Canada, Mexico, & the countries of Central America. Russia spans the continents of Asia & Europe. China is entirely on the Asian continent. Peaceray (talk) 18:15, 14 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The only country which calls itself a continent is the shameless Australia. ~2025-42156-76 (talk) 13:25, 21 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

It is wrong to treat the constituent countries as sovereign states. The kingdoms should have the numbered ranks instead ~2025-41227-26 (talk) 18:30, 17 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

They all have their own ISO country codes. Entities like Greenland and Aruba are generally considered to be their own countries by the international community. ~2025-42156-76 (talk) 13:22, 21 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Currently neither Greenland nor Kingdom of Denmark is listed with a rank. The article says that all 193 member states of the United Nations plus the two observer states are given a rank number, so I guess Kingdom of Denmark should be listed with rank 12 and the rank of the following countries should be increased by 1? --C960657 (talk) 15:23, 27 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The ranking is currently with Metropolitan Denmark at 130. No current view on which entity should have the ranking, but it seems both should not. CMD (talk) 23:44, 27 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Agreed. Either Denmark, Greenland and Faroe Islands should be listed each with their own rank (12, 131, and 172, respectively), or Kingdom of Denmark should be listed with one combined ranking (12). The quoted part of the article suggests the latter, i.e. that the UN member state (Kingdom of Denmark) should be ranked. --C960657 (talk) 18:02, 29 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

For consistency with other countries with territories separately listed for completeness (Norway, France, Australia, the US, and more) it would make sense to rank Denmark as the kingdom, and add a separate entry for mainland Denmark excluding Greenland's and Faroe Islands' area. Also, an entry for the kingdom of Netherlands including overseas territories is missing.

Specifically about Greenland, Åland enjoys a similar independence to Finland as Greenland does to Denmark, but Åland it is included in Finland's area. France and the UK area also do not account for some territories they likely should.

In general, I would prefer that the total area of ranked entries should accumulate to the total land area of Earth excluding Antarctica. Ranisalt (talk) 02:39, 19 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Why excluding Antarctica? Greenland is effectively northern Antarctica. TJauteur (talk) 17:31, 19 February 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Agreed. Antarctica should be included as a non-sovereign territory. ~2026-12830-53 (talk) 01:26, 27 February 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Someone needs to redo the conversion of kilometres to miles. The one for Australia is off by millions. ~2025-41665-44 (talk) 20:19, 18 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Not an edit request. Data is performed automatically by the template {{km2 mi2}}. Tbhotch^™ (CC BY-SA 4.0) 20:29, 18 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Change the "Water in km2 (mi2)" value of the line for Costa Rica from "40 (20)" to "572,877 (311,774)", and also change the value in the column of "Total in km2 (mi2)" from "51,180 (19,760)" to "624,017 (378,829)"

Sources: https://www.ucr.ac.cr/noticias/2019/6/07/costa-rica-92-mas-mar-que-tierra.html https://www.snitcr.go.cr/pdfs/tutoriales_presentaciones/Presentacion_Estado_actual_de_los_Limites_Maritimos_de_CR.pdf Marioaj (talk) 04:07, 4 February 2026 (UTC)[reply]

 Not done: At the beginning of the article the measurements used are defined, and for water area, it says, the sum of the surface areas of all inland water bodies (lakes, reservoirs, and rivers) within international boundaries and coastlines. Your supplied measurements are of Costa Rica's maritime area, not its inland water bodies. DrOrinScrivello (talk) 14:37, 5 February 2026 (UTC)[reply]

The US's measurements include coastlines. TJauteur (talk) 17:30, 19 February 2026 (UTC)[reply]

The CIA World Factbook is no longer a valid source since 2026, the table therefore needs to be reevaluated. My proposal: for countries without territorial issues and reliable public data, their country's official website should be the sole source of truth. For the rest, only claims respected by their neighbours should be included. TJauteur (talk) 17:03, 19 February 2026 (UTC)[reply]

The CIA World Factbook is a shame. ~2026-12830-53 (talk) 01:22, 27 February 2026 (UTC)[reply]

All sources for territorial areas are biased towards the US (The CIA handbook no longer exists as of 2026). The figures for the US's area include coastal area but, the same is not included for countries like China and Australia: despite it being noted in the definition of the water column that maritime water is not to be included and yet it affects the standings. My proposal: for countries without territorial issues and reliable public data, their country's official website should be the sole source of truth. For the rest, only claims respected by their neighbours should be included. And maritime and EEZ should absolutely be a part of the water column. TJauteur (talk) 17:08, 19 February 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Agreed. China should be ranked third and the United States should be ranked fourth. There shouldn't be a dispute about it. ~2026-12830-53 (talk) 01:24, 27 February 2026 (UTC)[reply]

So far the 'water column' has been the biggest source of inaccuracies in this article. Either get rid of it completely and use each country's official figures, or make the definition more precise. Should overseas territories be included? What about Canada and Norway's millions of islands that are effectively the same as any other country's overseas territory. What about territorial claims? Does Russia get to include Crimea, if so then what about China's claim over Hong Kong or Taiwan? What about Australia's 200km EEZ, does that get to be a part of Australia? Would a person get arrested if he were to swim in that EEZ and charged with illegally entering/trying to enter the country. The whole table is a mess. TJauteur (talk) 17:29, 19 February 2026 (UTC)[reply]

A country's water area means its internal waters (i.e. rivers, streams, canals, lakes, ponds, and reservoirs). It doesn't include a coastal/island country's coastal waters, territorial sea, exclusive economic zone, and extended continental shelf. The shameless United States is the only country on Earth which includes its coastal waters and territorial sea in its water area.

The exclusive economic zone is technically a part of the international waters. A coastal/island country can enjoy some sovereign rights in its exclusive economic zone, but the zone itself is not a part of that country's sovereign territory.

The same can be said of the extended continental shelf, except it offers less sovereign rights to its coastal/island country. The exclusive economic zone and the extended continental shelf should never be included as parts of a country's water area. ~2026-12830-53 (talk) 02:39, 27 February 2026 (UTC)[reply]

@TJauteur: I have again reverted your addition. I don't think we should list "Australia + AAT." There are serveral countries with claims on Antarctica (I don't know why you only added one), not to mention there are may more with uncontrolled claimed territories (which would be really complicated). I would be glad to add Taiwan above Canada beause of their 11,418,174 km² (though somewhat historical) claim, if we were to add them all.  — 魔琴 (Zauber Violino) [ talk contribs ] 04:25, 23 February 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Bro, Taiwan and the Republic of China aren't the exact same thing. ~2026-12830-53 (talk) 01:11, 27 February 2026 (UTC)[reply]

The Area of Ukraine is generally stated as 603,628 km2 in the sources from United Nations Statistics Division and The CIA World Factbook, and should be placed 45th on the list, not 48th. This corresponds with Ukraines listings on it's own wikipedia page as well. Gaffelspoon (talk) 13:48, 24 February 2026 (UTC)[reply]

 Not done: please provide reliable sources that support the change you want made. Specifically a link to the data cited would be helpful. ScrubbedFalcon (talk) 17:14, 24 February 2026 (UTC)[reply]