Visualising countries by share of Earth's surface.
There are over 197 million square miles (510m sq.km) of area on the surface of Earth, but less than 30 percent of this is covered by land. The rest is water.
If you're trying to decipher the above image on a mobile you'll no doubt be struggling. Maybe on a PC too (but you can click on the image to expand it). So, here are the headline facts and figures in writing:
The largest countries by surface area are Russia (3.35%), Canada (1.96%), and China (1.88%).
Russia is so big that even if we divided the country between its Asian and European sections, those new regions would still be the largest in their respective continents.
Antarctica, although not a country, covers the second largest amount of land overall at 2.75%. Meanwhile, the other nations that surpass the 1% mark for surface area include the United States (1.87%), Brazil (1.67%), and Australia (1.51%). The UK covers just 0.048%.
The remaining 195 countries and regions below 1%, combined, account for the other half of Earth’s land surface. Among the world’s smallest countries are the island nations of the Caribbean and the South Pacific Ocean. However, the tiniest of the tiny are Vatican City and Monaco, which combine for a total area of just 2.51 km².
The remaining 70% of Earth’s surface is water: 27% territorial waters and 43% international waters or areas beyond national jurisdiction.
Weirdly, the human body has roughly the same average percentage of water as our planet.
The size of countries is the outcome of politics, economics, history, and geography. Put simply, borders can change over time. In 1946, there were 76 independent countries in the world, and today there are 195 according to the UN. There are forces that push together or pull apart landscapes over time. While physical geography plays a role in the identity of nations, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the former ruler of UAE, a tiny Gulf nation, perhaps put it best: “A country is not measured by the size of its area on the map. A country is truly measured by its heritage and culture.”