AUSTRALIAN FACTS AND FIGURES

Comparing the Size of Countries

While Australia is the sixth largest country, it is only about 5% of the total world's land area. Australia is also the smallest continental land mass (or largest island).

Australia's population is quite small compared to the land size. The UK has 248.25 persons per 1 km², while Australia has only 2.66 persons per 1 km².

Country	Area in km²	Arable Land *	Population **	# of People per km²
1. Russia	17,075,200	7.17 %	141,377,752	8.28
2. Canada	9,984,670	4.57 %	33,390,141	3.34
3. USA	9,629,091	18.01 %	301,139,947	31.27
4. China	9,596,960	14.86 %	1,321,851,888	137.74
5. Brazil	8,511,965	6.93 %	190,010,647	22.32
6. Australia	7,686,850	6.15 %	20,434,176	2.66
A selection of other countries to compare
India	3,287,590	48.83 %	1,129,866,154	343.68
Mexico	1,972,550	12.66 %	108,700,891	55.11
Egypt	1,001,450	2.92 %	80,335,036	80.22
France	547,030	33.46 %	64,057,790	117.10
Spain	504,782	27.18 %	40,448,191	80.13
Japan	377,835	11.64 %	127,433,494	337.28
Germany	357,021	33.13 %	82,400,996	230.80
Italy	301,230	26.41 %	58,147,733	190.03
New Zealand	268,680	5.54 %	4,115,771	15.32
United Kingdom	244,820	23.23 %	60,776,238	248.25

* Arable land is land cultivated for crops replanted after each harvest like wheat, corn, and rice.
** Estimated for 2007

NOTE: We did not include the Antarctic territory in the Australian figures for total size because Australia's claim has not been recognized by the world.

There are 7 nations (Argentina, Australia, Britain, Chile, France, New Zealand, and Norway) who have claimed land in the Antarctic with some claims overlapping. The Antarctic Treaty of 1961 does not allow any single country to control any part of Antarctica and has put all territorial claims on hold for the duration of the treaty. Until all the land claims are resolved, no one actually owns Antarctica right now so no one includes Antarctica in their country's total land size.

More Information

Australian Antarctic Division - Australian Government site

Statistics are from the CIA World Factbook and other sources. Visit their website for more complete information.

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