It's one of those facts we all learn in grade school, right next to the idea that the Great Wall of China is visible from space (it's not, usually) or that humans only use 10% of their brains (totally false). You hear it once and it sticks. Russia is huge. Like, mind-bogglingly big.
But honestly, when you ask is russia the biggest country in the world, the answer is a resounding "yes"—but that "yes" comes with some wild context that makes a simple ranking feel almost like an understatement. We’re talking about a landmass so massive that it literally rivals the surface area of a dwarf planet.
Just how big are we talking?
Let’s look at the hard numbers for a second. Russia covers about 17.1 million square kilometers. To put that into perspective, the United States and China both hover around 9.4 to 9.7 million square kilometers, depending on who you ask and how they measure water territory.
Basically, you could fit the U.S. into Russia, and you’d still have enough room left over to toss in Australia and maybe a few European countries for good measure. It’s almost double the size of the next runner-up, Canada.
I remember looking at a map once and realizing that if you take a train from Moscow in the west to Vladivostok in the east, you’re crossing eleven different time zones. Eleven! When someone in Kaliningrad is sitting down for a late breakfast on Saturday morning, someone in Kamchatka is already thinking about heading to bed. It’s a logistical nightmare, sure, but it’s also a testament to the sheer scale of the place.
The Pluto comparison that actually holds up
You might have seen this floating around the internet: Russia has more surface area than Pluto.
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For a long time, this was a favorite "did you know" fact for geography nerds. However, thanks to the New Horizons mission, we actually have better data now. Pluto’s surface area is roughly 17.6 million square kilometers.
So, technically, the dwarf planet has Russia beat by a hair—about 500,000 square kilometers. That's roughly the size of Spain. But the fact that we even have to check the math against a celestial body in the Kuiper Belt tells you everything you need to know about Russian geography.
Why the map is kinda lying to you
If you’ve ever looked at a standard school wall map—the Mercator projection—Russia looks even more terrifyingly large than it actually is.
Because the Mercator map flattens a sphere into a rectangle, it stretches things out the further they get from the equator. Since Russia is sitting way up north, it gets "inflated." On some maps, it looks bigger than all of Africa.
In reality, Africa is nearly twice as big as Russia (30.3 million square kilometers vs 17.1 million). Don't get me wrong, Russia is still the undisputed heavyweight champion of countries, but the map definitely does it some favors in the ego department.
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The Great Divide: Europe vs. Asia
Here’s where it gets kinda complicated. Is Russia a European country or an Asian one?
Geographically, about 77% of the land sits in Asia. But—and it’s a big "but"—about 75% to 80% of the population lives in the European part. The Ural Mountains are the traditional divider. Everything west of the Urals is "European Russia," and everything east is Siberia and the Far East.
If you split Russia in two, the Asian part would still be the largest country in Asia. The European part? It would be the largest country in Europe by a massive margin, making up about 40% of the entire continent’s land.
Life in the "Empty" space
Since most people are crammed into the western side near Moscow and St. Petersburg, what’s happening in the rest of that 17 million square kilometers?
Mostly, a whole lot of nothing. And by nothing, I mean some of the most beautiful, untouched, and brutally cold wilderness on Earth.
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- Lake Baikal: Holds about 20% of the world's unfrozen fresh water. It's the deepest lake on the planet.
- The Taiga: A massive forest belt that acts as one of the world's biggest carbon sinks. It’s bigger than the Amazon.
- Permafrost: Huge chunks of the north are permanently frozen. This makes building anything—roads, houses, pipes—a total pain because the ground literally shifts when the top layer thaws.
Honestly, the size is as much a burden as it is a blessing. Managing a country where it takes a week to cross it by rail is a massive challenge. Infrastructure costs are astronomical. You've got regions that are so remote they can only be reached by plane or by "winter roads" (frozen rivers) during the coldest months.
Is Russia the biggest country in the world forever?
Geologically speaking, borders shift, and empires rise and fall. But in terms of sheer landmass, no other country is even close to challenging the title. Canada is the only one in the double digits (barely, at 9.9 million km²), and even they would need to find another 7 million square kilometers of land somewhere in the Atlantic to catch up.
So, yeah, Russia is the biggest, and it's likely staying that way for our lifetimes.
What you should do with this info
If you're a traveler or just a curious soul, the "size" factor of Russia means you can't just "visit Russia" in a week. You have to pick a corner.
- For the "European" vibe: Stick to the Golden Ring around Moscow.
- For the "Adventure" vibe: Look into the Trans-Siberian Railway. It’s the ultimate way to feel the scale.
- For the "Nature" vibe: Kamchatka. It's got volcanoes, bears, and feels like the end of the world because, well, it kind of is.
If you’re planning a trip or just researching, start by looking at the specific regions rather than the country as a whole. You wouldn't try to understand the climate of the entire United States by only looking at a weather report for Miami; Russia is that, but on steroids. Stick to a region, learn the local culture (which varies wildly from the Caucasus to the Arctic), and respect the distance.
The most important takeaway? Never trust a map that doesn't show you the true scale of the poles.