How big is Australia compared with Greenland?
Australia is about 3.6 times as big as Greenland: 7 692 024 km² against 2 166 086 km².
How many times does it fit?
Greenland would fit into Australia about 3 times. The number counts area, not shape: on a real map the smaller one would have to be cut up to fill the bigger one exactly.
Which has more people?
Australia has 25 million people, Greenland has 56 000 people. Australia is more crowded: about 3 people share each square kilometre, against 0 in Greenland.
The two side by side
Why do maps get sizes wrong?
Most world maps on walls and in apps use the Mercator projection. It keeps shapes and directions right, which is why sailors loved it, but it stretches everything the further it is from the equator. Greenland looks as big as Africa on such a map, even though Africa is about fourteen times bigger. Greenland lies further from the equator than Australia, so on a wall map it looks bigger than it really is.
The drawing on this page uses an equal-area projection centred on each place, so the two shapes can be compared fairly.
How big is a square kilometre?
A square kilometre (km²) is a square that measures one kilometre on each side. About 140 football pitches fit into it. So a country of 40 000 km² is as big as 40 000 such squares put together – that is more than five million football pitches.
Questions children ask
How big is Australia compared with Greenland?
Australia is about 3.6 times as big as Greenland: 7 692 024 km² against 2 166 086 km².
How many times does Greenland fit into Australia?
Greenland would fit into Australia about 3 times.
Where do more people live, in Australia or in Greenland?
Australia has 25 million people, Greenland has 56 000 people.
Why does the size look different on a normal world map?
Most world maps on walls and in apps use the Mercator projection. It keeps shapes and directions right, which is why sailors loved it, but it stretches everything the further it is from the equator. Greenland looks as big as Africa on such a map, even though Africa is about fourteen times bigger. Greenland lies further from the equator than Australia, so on a wall map it looks bigger than it really is.
Where these numbers come from
Areas: world-countries (ISO 3166, Natural Earth); continents rounded to textbook values, Europe to the Urals. Population: World Bank, 2018. Outlines: Natural Earth.
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