You’ve seen the maps. You know the one—the classic rectangular Mercator projection hanging on every classroom wall since the dawn of time. On those maps, Greenland looks like a massive icy continent that could swallow Africa whole.
Honestly? It's a lie.
Not a malicious lie, mind you, but a mathematical one. You can't flatten a sphere onto a sheet of paper without stretching something. And while Greenland is actually about the size of Mexico, there is one giant that doesn't need a trick of the light to look imposing.
When we talk about the largest country of the world, we are talking about Russia.
It’s not even a close race. Russia is so absurdly large that it basically functions as its own hemisphere. It covers over 17 million square kilometers. To put that in perspective, it’s bigger than the entire surface of Pluto. Yeah, the planet (or dwarf planet, depending on how grumpy you are about 2006).
The sheer scale of the largest country of the world
Russia is big. Like, "eleven time zones" big.
When a family in Kaliningrad is sitting down for a late breakfast on a Saturday, a fisherman on the Kamchatka Peninsula is already heading to bed. It’s a landmass that bridges two continents, yet somehow feels like it belongs to neither. About 77% of it is in Asia, but the vast majority of the people live in the European slice.
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It’s a bit of a geographical identity crisis.
How it stacks up against the runners-up
If you look at the silver and bronze medalists, the gap is hilarious.
- Canada takes second place at roughly 9.98 million square kilometers.
- China and the United States usually fight over third and fourth, depending on how you measure coastal waters and disputed territories, both hovering around 9.6 to 9.8 million.
You could basically fit Canada and Australia inside Russia and still have room for a few European nations. It’s 11% of the Earth's entire landmass. If you stood in the middle of a random field in the Siberian taiga, you’d be part of a forest that holds more carbon than any other national ecosystem on the planet.
Why the map makes it look even weirder
We have to talk about Gerardus Mercator. Back in 1569, he designed a map for sailors. It was brilliant for navigation because a straight line on the map was a constant compass bearing. But the price of that accuracy was "area distortion."
The further you get from the equator, the more the map stretches.
Since the largest country of the world sits way up north, the Mercator projection makes it look like it takes up half the globe. In reality, it’s still huge, but not "covers-the-entire-top-of-the-map" huge. If you dragged Russia down to the equator on a digital map tool like The True Size Of, you’d see it shrink significantly, though it still dwarfs Brazil or India.
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Life in the giant: It’s not all snow
Most people hear "Russia" and think of a shivering guy in a fur hat.
Sure, Yakutsk is the coldest city on Earth, where -50°C is just a Tuesday in January. But the geography is actually a wild mix. You’ve got the humid subtropics in Sochi where people grow palm trees and go to the beach. You’ve got the "Steppe," which is basically a never-ending sea of grass that looks like the American Midwest on steroids.
Then there’s Lake Baikal.
This isn't just a lake; it's a geological freak of nature. It holds 20% of the world's unfrozen fresh water. It’s the deepest lake on the planet. If you emptied it, it would take all the water from the five Great Lakes in North America combined to even come close to filling it back up.
The 2026 perspective: Borders and changes
Geography isn't always static. While the physical land doesn't move, the way we draw the lines does. As of early 2026, the international community and groups like the United Nations still recognize Russia’s "official" area based on its 1991 borders.
However, de facto control is a different story.
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Following the events of the last few years, Russia claims and occupies significant portions of Ukraine, including Crimea and parts of the Donbas, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia regions. If you include these annexed territories—which most of the world does not recognize—the "technical" area under Moscow's control grows by about 100,000 square kilometers.
But even without those disputed miles, Russia remains the undisputed heavyweight champion of land area. No other country is even within striking distance.
Is it too big to manage?
Expert geographers often talk about the "curse of scale." When you are the largest country of the world, everything is harder.
- Infrastructure: Building a road from Moscow to Vladivostok is a nightmare of permafrost and mountain ranges.
- Defense: You have the longest borders in the world to watch.
- Communication: Keeping a unified culture across 11 time zones is a feat of strength.
What you should actually do with this info
Knowing Russia is the biggest is great for trivia night, but if you're a traveler or a student of the world, there are better ways to use this knowledge.
First, stop trusting your eyes on flat maps. Download an "Equal Area" map or look at a 3D globe. It’ll re-wire your brain to see the true proportions of Africa and South America.
Second, look into the "Northern Sea Route." Because of the sheer size of the Russian Arctic coast, melting ice is turning this into a massive shipping shortcut between Europe and Asia. It's changing global trade as we speak.
Third, appreciate the emptiness. Most of the largest countries (Russia, Canada, Australia) are actually mostly empty. We live in a world where we think it's overcrowded, but the "Big Three" prove that humans really like huddling together in small, warm corners.
Next steps for the curious:
Check out a tool like The True Size and overlay Russia on top of Africa. You'll be shocked at how it fits. Then, look into the Trans-Siberian Railway—it’s still the only way to truly "feel" the scale of the world's largest country without leaving the ground.