What Is the Largest State, Province or Region in the World?

The Sakha Republic (Yakutia) in Russia is the largest first-level administrative region in the world (Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark, is included for comparison), at about 3.08 million km². That is almost as large as India (about 3.3 million km²) and bigger than Argentina. Western Australia, Krasnoyarsk Krai, Greenland and Nunavut follow, each about 2.1 to 2.5 million km², larger than most countries.

The five largest subnational regions side by side at their true size.

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The numbers

Rank	Region	Country	Area (about)	Population (about)
1	Sakha Republic (Yakutia)	Russia	3.08 million km²	1 million
2	Western Australia	Australia	2.53 million km²	2.8 million
3	Krasnoyarsk Krai	Russia	2.37 million km²	2.8 million
4	Greenland	Denmark (autonomous territory)	2.17 million km²	56,000
5	Nunavut	Canada	2.09 million km²	40,000

Sources: Wikipedia and the national statistics offices. Published area figures differ a little between sources, for example depending on whether inland water is counted, and Greenland counts here as an autonomous territory rather than a state. Antarctic territorial claims are not included.

What makes each one special

• Sakha is mostly permafrost taiga. Its Oymyakon area is among the coldest inhabited places on Earth, and the region is a major source of diamonds.
• Western Australia covers about one-third of Australia but holds roughly 11% of its people, most of them in Perth.
• Krasnoyarsk Krai stretches from the Arctic Ocean down toward Mongolia, along the Yenisei River.
• Greenland is the largest island in the world, mostly under an ice sheet.
• Nunavut was created in 1999 and is the largest and least populous territory of Canada.

Why normal maps get this wrong

Four of the five regions lie in the far north, where a Mercator map stretches shapes the most. Sakha and Nunavut look even larger than they are, and Western Australia, near the tropics, looks smaller than it is. Moving them side by side in TrueSize removes that effect, so the ranking becomes visible: they are all of similar size, and any of them could fit several European countries inside.

Try it yourself

1. Search for "Sakha" ("Search for a country or region…") and add it. Do the same for the other four.
2. Drag them next to each other. Open Tools → Stats for the combined area.
3. Add your own country, or use Home → Divide on a large country to see its own regions.

Open this map in TrueSize

More comparisons

• Greenland vs Africa
• How big is Africa?
• The world's smallest countries
• Tutorial: divide and merge regions

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