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Australian Government, Geoscience Australia

Updated: 22 April 2005

Australia's Size Compared

Australia is one of about 210 countries. At 7617930 km2, it comprises just five percent of the world's land area (149,450,000 km2), yet it is the planet's sixth largest country after Russia, Canada, China, USA, and Brazil. Australia is also the smallest continental land mass (or largest island).

Whilst the areas of Canada and the United States are similar to Europe, their populations are markedly smaller, by factors of eighteen (3 persons per km2) and two (29 persons per km2) respectively. Australia is not far behind in size, but its population compared to Europe is 30 times smaller. Japan's population density is 336 persons per km2 and the United Kingdom's is 244 persons per km2, compared to Australia's 2.5 persons per km2.

An interesting comparison between the countries in the table is the ratio of the amount of arable land to population, which provides some insight into the possible environmental stresses being exerted on their landscapes.

Australia/Europe
Image showing Australia and Europe's sizes compared
Australia/British Isles
Image showing Australia and the British Isles sizes compared
Australia/Japan
Image showing Australia and Japan's sizes compared
Australia/United States
Image showing Australia and mainland United State's sizes compared


COUNTRY AREA, LAND (km2) ARABLE AREA, LAND (%) ARABLE AREA, LAND (km2) POPULATION
Australia 7617930 6.55 498974 19913144
Japan 374744 12.19 45681 127333002
United Kingdom 241590 23.46 56677 60270708
Canada 9093507 4.96 451038 35507874
USA 9161923 19.13 1752676 293027571
China 9326410 15.4 1436267 1298847624
European Union
(includes 25 countries)
3788027 26.13 989999 456285839
Ireland 68890 15.2 10471 3969558
Portugal 91951 21.75 19999 10524145
Spain 499542 26.07 130231 40280780
France 545630 33.53 182950 60424213
Germany 349223 33.85 118212 82424609
Netherlands 33883 26.71 9050 16318199
Luxembourg 2586 23.28 602 462690
Belgium 30728 23.28 7049 10348276
Switzerland 39770 10.42 4144 7450867
Italy 294020 27.79 81708 58057477
Austria 82444 16.91 13941 8174762
Czech Republic 77276 39.8 30756 10246178
Slovenia 20151 8.6 1733 2011473
Croatia 56414 26.09 14718 4496869
Bosnia & Herzegovina 51129 13.6 6954 4007608
Serbia & Montenegro 102136 33.35 34062 10825900
Macedonia 24856 22.26 5533 2071210
Albania 27398 21.09 5778 3544808
Greece 130800 21.1 27599 10647529
Bulgaria 110550 40.02 44242 7517973
Romania 230340 40.82 94025 22355551
Hungary 92340 50.09 46253 10032375
Poland 304465 45.91 139780 38626349
Moldova 33371 55.3 18454 4446455
Ukraine 603700 56.21 339340 47732079
Belarus 207600 29.55 61346 10310520
Latvia 63589 29.67 18867 2306306
Estonia 43211 16.04 6931 1341664
Denmark 42394 54.02 22901 5413392
Norway 307860 2.87 8836 4574560
Sweden 410935 6.54 26875 8986400
Finland 304473 7.19 21892 5214512
Russia 16995800 7.33 1245792 143782338
Iceland 100250 0.07 70 293966
Slovakia 48800 30.15 14713 5423567

All information provided in the above table is correct at the time of publication. The data for the statistics is taken from the World Factbook 2005.

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