List of countries by area
Wikimedia ranked list / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is a list of the world's countries and their territories by total, land and water area, ranked by total area.
The entries in the list include, but not limited to, those in the ISO 3166 standard which includes all sovereign states, dependent territories and other territories integrated to their states. [lower-alpha 1]
The data includes only the de jure area of the respective country, these don't include de facto controlled territories, neither other territorial claims, without prejudice of legitimation of these. Largely unrecognized states not found in ISO 3166 are included in ranked order. The areas of such largely unrecognized states are in most cases also included in the areas of most widely recognized states as they claim the same territory. [lower-alpha 2]
Not included in the list are non-land areas, such the Pacific Plastic Island[lower-alpha 3], organizations such as the NATO and unrecognized micronations such as the Republic of Üzupis.
The entry includes three subfields:
- Total area: Total area is the sum of all land and water areas delimited by international boundaries and/or coastlines.
- Land area: Land area is the aggregate of all surfaces delimited by international boundaries and/or coastlines, excluding inland water bodies (lakes, reservoirs, rivers)
- Water area: Water area is the sum of the surfaces of all inland water bodies, such as lakes, reservoirs, or rivers, as delimited by international boundaries and/or coastlines
For uniformity criteria, data from the CIA World Factbook are used. Typically, other statistical services of other countries calculate themselves, of which will defer the table's one's. Although most notes include the areas of such internal waters, this was excluded of these cases which the info affects of considerably way to the relation of the table. [lower-alpha 4]