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This is a list of the world's countries and their
dependent territories A dependent territory, dependent area, or dependency (sometimes referred as an external territory) is a territory that does not possess full political independence or sovereignty as a sovereign state, yet remains politically outside the controlli ...
by land, water and total area, ranked by total area. Entries in this list include, but are not limited to, those in the
ISO 3166-1 ISO 3166-1 (''Codes for the representation of names of countries and their subdivisions – Part 1: Country codes'') is a standard defining codes for the names of countries, dependent territories, and special areas of geographical interest. It ...
standard, which includes
sovereign states A sovereign state or sovereign country, is a political entity represented by one central government that has supreme legitimate authority over territory. International law defines sovereign states as having a permanent population, defined terr ...
and dependent territories. All 193
member states of the United Nations The United Nations member states are the sovereign states that are members of the United Nations (UN) and have equal representation in the UN General Assembly. The UN is the world's largest intergovernmental organization. The criteria ...
plus the two observer states are given a rank number. Largely unrecognised states not in ISO 3166-1 are included in the list in ranked order. The areas of such largely unrecognised states are in most cases also included in the areas of the more widely recognised states that claim the same territory; see the notes in the "notes" column for each country for clarification. Not included in the list are individual country claims to parts of the continent of
Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest cont ...
or entities such as the
European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are located primarily in Europe, Europe. The union has a total area of ...
that have some degree of sovereignty but do not consider themselves to be sovereign countries or dependent territories. This list includes three measurements of area: *Total area: the sum of land and water areas within international boundaries and coastlines. *Land area: the aggregate of all land within international boundaries and coastlines, excluding water area. * Water area: the sum of the surface areas of all inland water bodies (lakes,
reservoir A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contr ...
s, and rivers) within international boundaries and coastlines. Coastal
internal waters According to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, a nation's internal waters include waters on the side of the baseline of a nation's territorial waters that is facing toward the land, except in archipelagic states. It includes wat ...
may be included.
Territorial sea The term territorial waters is sometimes used informally to refer to any area of water over which a sovereign state has jurisdiction, including internal waters, the territorial sea, the contiguous zone, the exclusive economic zone, and pote ...
s are not included unless otherwise noted. Contiguous zones and exclusive economic zones are not included. Data is taken from the
United Nations Statistics Division The United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), formerly the United Nations Statistical Office, serves under the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) as the central mechanism within the Secretariat of the United Nations ...
unless otherwise noted.


Map


Countries and dependencies by area


Charts

The charts below are based on the ''
CIA World Factbook ''The World Factbook'', also known as the ''CIA World Factbook'', is a reference resource produced by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) with almanac-style information about the countries of the world. The official print version is available ...
'' as of 15 February 2005.
Sovereign state A sovereign state or sovereign country, is a political entity represented by one central government that has supreme legitimate authority over territory. International law defines sovereign states as having a permanent population, defined ter ...
s with areas greater than 100,000 km2 are shown in green. In addition, non-sovereign territories are included for purposes of comparison, and are shown in gray. Areas include inland water bodies (lakes, reservoirs, rivers). Claims to parts of
Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest cont ...
by various countries are not included.


Countries larger than 1.5 million km2


Countries between 100,000 km2 and 1.5 million km2


See also

* List of countries and dependencies by population density *
List of countries and dependencies by population This is a list of countries and dependencies by population. It includes sovereign states, inhabited dependent territories and, in some cases, constituent countries of sovereign states, with inclusion within the list being primarily based on the ...
* List of European countries by area * List of largest empires * List of political and geographic subdivisions by total area *
List of sovereign states The following is a list providing an overview of sovereign states around the world with information on their status and recognition of their sovereignty. The 206 listed states can be divided into three categories based on membership wit ...
* Orders of magnitude (area)


Explanatory notes


References


External links


Countries of the world ordered by land area
{{DEFAULTSORT:countries and dependencies by area, List of Geography-related lists
Area Area is the quantity that expresses the extent of a region on the plane or on a curved surface. The area of a plane region or ''plane area'' refers to the area of a shape or planar lamina, while '' surface area'' refers to the area of an op ...
Lists by area
Area Area is the quantity that expresses the extent of a region on the plane or on a curved surface. The area of a plane region or ''plane area'' refers to the area of a shape or planar lamina, while '' surface area'' refers to the area of an op ...