What weight does Albania have on the global map? We are ranked 143rd, five countries hold about 40% of the world's land
On a world map, the differences between countries are much greater than they might seem at first glance. Just five countries control about 40% of the global land area, while Albania represents only 0.02% of it. A ranking published by Visual Capitalist shows how concentrated the planet's land is in a small number of countries and brings up some surprising comparisons between countries and continents.
The ranking is based on land area only, meaning it does not include lakes and other inland waters. In published data, the world's land area amounts to about 50.1 million square miles, or approximately 129.8 million square kilometers.
On this global map, Albania ranks 143rd, with 10,579 square miles of land, equivalent to about 27,400 square kilometers. This means that our country represents only 0.02% of the world's land area. To better understand the scale, it would take about 4,700 territories the size of Albania to cover the entire land area included in the ranking.
At the top is Russia, which alone represents about 12.6% of the world's land. The difference with Albania is extraordinary. Russia's land area is approximately 600 times larger than that of our country. Following it are China, the United States, Canada and Brazil. The five together occupy about 40% of all global land.
The distribution by region also shows strong contrasts. Asia accounts for 31.8% of the world's land area, the largest share among the regions analyzed. In this classification, Russia is counted as part of Asia, since about 77% of its territory is located on the Asian continent, even though the majority of the Russian population lives in the European part.
Another interesting comparison comes between Europe and the Middle East. When Russia is excluded from Europe, the continent represents about 4.4% of the global land area, less than the 4.8% that belongs to the Middle East. Saudi Arabia, the largest country in this region, ranks 12th in the world by land area.
The method of calculation also produces results that may seem unusual. The United States ranks ahead of Canada when land area alone is measured. Canada is larger in total area, but it has a very large amount of inland water, which is not counted in this ranking. The Great Lakes alone, which lie between the United States and Canada, cover over 94,000 square miles.
In fact, the US and Canada together have over 6.9 million square miles of land, more than all of South America. In the latter, Brazil represents almost half of the continent's land area, followed by Argentina, Peru, and Colombia.
Africa also shows that traditional maps do not always give us the right perception of real size. A full 21 of the world's 50 largest countries by land area are in Africa, more than in any other region. Yet the continent's largest country, Algeria, is only tenth in the global ranking. In total, Africa has about 14 times more land than Greenland, although common map projections make Greenland appear much larger than it actually is.
Albania, meanwhile, is among countries with relatively close land areas. Haiti, ranked one position higher, has 10,641 square miles of land, just 62 square miles more than Albania. Following our country is Burundi with 9,915 square miles, while North Macedonia is 145th with 9,737 square miles. Montenegro, in 157th place, has 5,193 square miles, which means that Albania's land area is slightly more than double its size.
At the bottom of the ranking are the micro-states, where the difference with the giants of the world becomes extreme. The Vatican is the smallest country in the world by land area, while Monaco, Nauru, Tuvalu and San Marino are also ranked among the smallest states. Their territory measures only a few or a few dozen square kilometers, showing the extraordinary contrast of the global map, from Russia, which occupies 12.6% of the world's land, to countries that can be crossed from one end to the other in a very short time.
The figures show that the notion of a “big” or “small” country varies significantly depending on the point of comparison. Albania occupies only a very small part of the planet’s land, but the difference becomes much more tangible when placed against the extremes, a Russia is about 600 Albanias, while the entire land surface of the world would be about 4,700 Albanias (see here) .
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