How Big Is the USA on the Moon?

The United States, at about 9.83 million km², would cover roughly 26% of the entire surface of the Moon, which is about 37.9 million km². Put another way, about four copies of the USA would cover the whole Moon. Australia would cover about a fifth of it. On the Moon, a country keeps its true area and the world around it shrinks.

The USA moved onto the Moon in TrueSize: about a quarter of the whole surface.

Open this map in TrueSize

The numbers

The Moon has a radius of 1,737.4 km, so its diameter is only 0.27 times Earth's. Its surface area is about 37.9 million km². Earth's land area (about 148.9 million km²) is 3.9 times the whole Moon.

Region	Area	Share of the Moon's surface
United States	about 9.83 million km²	about 26%
Russia	about 17.1 million km²	about 45%
China	about 9.6 million km²	about 25%
Australia	about 7.7 million km²	about 20%
Europe	about 10.2 million km²	about 27%
Africa	about 30.37 million km²	about 80%
Antarctica	about 14 million km²	about 37%

Country areas are well-known published totals. The surface area of the Moon is calculated from its radius.

Why the Moon feels so small

Area grows with the square of the radius. The Moon is about a quarter of Earth's width, but its surface is only about 7% of Earth's surface. A country does not shrink when you move it to another world, so it looks huge next to the smaller sphere.

TrueSize also corrects the usual map distortion. On a flat Mercator map, countries far from the equator look much bigger than they are. In planet mode the map is a globe, so the shapes you see are not stretched toward the poles.

Australia on the Moon: about a fifth of the surface.

Open the Australia map in TrueSize

Try it yourself

1. Search for a country in the Home search box ("Search for a country or region…") and add it.
2. Open the Fun tab and click Planets, then choose the Moon in the picker. Use the Previous and Next buttons to flip between worlds.
3. Drag the country across the Moon. Click Return to Earth to go back.

The Moon uses Solar System Scope imagery (CC BY 4.0). Planet mode is available on the web version. While a planet is shown, the address bar holds a link to that exact view, which you can copy and send.

Open this map in TrueSize

More comparisons

• The Soviet Union was bigger than Pluto
• How big is Russia on Mars?
• The USA on Saturn and Jupiter
• Compare Countries on the Moon, Mars and Other Planets

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