Country · Europe
Vatican City
Vatican City State
Vatican City is a country in Southern Europe. About 825 people live there, in an area of 0.44 square kilometres. Its capital city is Vatican City.
Picture credit: Jean-Pol GRANDMONT (CC BY-SA 3.0) · Jean-Pol GRANDMONT (CC BY-SA 3.0) · Diliff (CC BY-SA 3.0) · Wikimedia Commons
Where is Vatican City?
Vatican City lies in Southern Europe, on the continent of Europe.
It sits in the northern half of the world, roughly 4 664 km from the equator.
Vatican City is landlocked: it has no coast at all, so you cannot reach the sea without crossing another country.
It shares a border with 1 country: Italy.
How big is Vatican City?
Vatican City covers 0.44 square kilometres.
Among the world's countries that makes it the 194th largest.
Spread everybody out evenly and you get about 1 875 people on every square kilometre.
That is busier than the world average of roughly 60 people per square kilometre.
Who lives in Vatican City?
About 825 people live in Vatican City.
That is the 194th biggest population in the world.
People here speak Italian and Latin.
They pay with the Euro (€).
The land of Vatican City
Because the country is landlocked, everything arriving by ship has to cross its one neighbour, Italy, first.
It lies between the tropics and the poles, which is the single biggest reason its weather is the way it is.
What makes Vatican City different?
Websites from here often end in .va.
Vatican City and the rest of the world
Fewer than one person in every thousand on Earth lives in Vatican City.
It takes up less than a hundredth of one per cent of all the land in the world.
Within Europe the country ranks 45th of 45 by size, and 45th by population.
Vatican City and its neighbours
Italy is thousands of times that size.
Italy has more people: 60.4 million against 825.
Nature and animals
The highest mountain in the country is the Vatican Hill, at 75 metres.
Where this country lands in the record lists
How big is Vatican City compared with the United States?
- The United States is about 21 301 386 times as big as Vatican City: 9 372 610 km² against 0 km².
- The United Kingdom is about 552 045 times as big as Vatican City: 242 900 km² against 0 km².
Questions children ask
What is the capital of Vatican City?
The capital of Vatican City is Vatican City. It is the city where the country's government works from.
How many people live in Vatican City?
About 825 people live in Vatican City, which makes it the 194th most populated country in the world. (Source: World Bank, 2018.)
Which countries border Vatican City?
Vatican City borders Italy — 1 neighbour in total.
How big is Vatican City?
Vatican City covers 0.44 square kilometres, making it the 194th largest country in the world.
What is the highest mountain in Vatican City?
The highest mountain in Vatican City is the Vatican Hill, 75 metres above sea level. It is the country's highest point.
Are there rivers in Vatican City?
Vatican City has no river and no stream: the whole country is smaller than a large city park, so there is no room for one.
Which continent is Vatican City in?
Vatican City is in Europe, in the part called Southern Europe.
Where these numbers come from
Borders and outlines: Natural Earth. Names, capitals, areas, languages and currencies: ISO 3166 data (world-countries). Population: World Bank, 2018. Every derived figure on this page (ranks, density, distance from the equator) is calculated from those values.
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