Country sizes: 57 sourced records

What this topic measures

Surface area includes inland waters. It differs from land area. The unit is km². This topic uses ratio scoring: a value half the target and a value twice the target are equally far away, so think in multiplicative bands rather than fixed steps.

A record is a named row in the frozen catalog, not necessarily a unique entity. Some topics contain several records with the same value, and a name round accepts any record at the closest distance. The table below is the complete answer set for this topic; there is no hidden shortlist.

All 57 records

Every row links to the original source used for that record. Values are rounded for display only; the scoring engine uses the stored source value. The snapshot date and unit are part of the topic’s definition, so a current live figure may differ.

The table has 57 rows, one for each accepted record. It does not list every alias or spelling variant; the game’s name matcher handles those at answer time. If two records share a value, both remain separate rows.

The range and the gaps

The 57 records run from 734.4 km² to 17,125,190 km². The median is 513,115 km², with a middle half from 238,400 km² to 1,140,619.1 km². The largest adjacent gap is 5,802,900 km² between United States and Canada. Every record has a distinct value in this snapshot.

The highest listed records are Russia (17,125,190 km²), Canada (15,634,410 km²), United States (9,831,510 km²). The lowest are Singapore (734.4 km²), Belgium (30,689 km²), Switzerland (41,290.7 km²). Use these as anchors before you make a ratio or year estimate; the table below gives every value.

What the table does not tell you

These are single snapshot values in km² for 2023 World Bank snapshot · 57 selected countries. The table is not a time series, a range of typical values or a measure of uncertainty. A source can round, revise or use a different definition in a later release; the game uses the stored snapshot for every score. Read the source and the record label before treating a value as a current live measurement.

How to estimate this topic

Country areas are land-area figures in square kilometres. Use 100,000 km², 1 million km² and 10 million km² as bands. The largest records are continental-scale, so a linear guess feels too small near the top; think in powers of ten.

For a method that applies across topics, see the estimation guide. To practise this topic without changing a daily result, open the practice setup for Country sizes. The setup opens first; it does not start a clock automatically.

Recent daily use

This topic has appeared in 1 completed daily round. The table lists the most recent 1 uses. Each date opens the full answer page for that flight.

Source, licence and snapshot

The listed source is World Bank · World Development Indicators ↗. Snapshot: 2026-10-24. Licence / attribution: CC BY 4.0.

We select and transform source records for independently written game rules. The source material remains subject to its original licence. If a value looks wrong, send the topic, record, expected value and source through the contact form; do not send passwords or account credentials.

Related topics

Country populations (57 records) · City living (57 records) · GDP per person (57 records) · Life expectancy (57 records)

All 27 topics · Archive · Source attribution