Monday 24 January 2011

Exactly how big is the United Kingdom?

Following on from the theme of a recent post, about the size of different countries, I thought it would be interesting to compare the size of the United Kingdom to other parts of the world. The UK covers an area of about 243,000 square km., which is quite big in some ways, but not so big in others (ask any Canadian). It's all a matter of perspective. Some maps and facts below, with the UK superimposed on different parts of the world. Click the maps to see them in full size.

  • Russia is 70 times larger than the UK
  • Canada is about 41 times larger than the UK
  • The USA and China are both approximately 40 times larger than the UK
  • Brazil is 35 times bigger than the UK
  • Australia is about 32 times bigger than the UK
  • India is 13 times bigger
  • Sudan is 10 times bigger (n.b. now split in two since I originally wrote this)
  • Iran is 7 times bigger
  • France is twice as big (this is just the European part, not the overseas départements)
NOTES: I've used an equal area projection so there is a bit more map distortion than I'd like but this was just a bit of fun to make a point and remind myself of the relative size of the UK. For the USA I've shown the continental US and Alaska on separate maps. I've not shown Hawaii this time.