countries

Russia is so large that when the sun rises over its Pacific coast, much of the country is still in the previous day. At about 17 million square kilometres it covers more than an eighth of all the land on Earth — bigger than the surface of Pluto — and stretches across eleven time zones. The ranking of the world's biggest countries is a story of empires, frozen frontiers, and a map projection that quietly lies about who's really biggest.

India overtook China as the world's most populous country in 2023, according to UN projections. This ranking covers the 20 largest countries with World Bank figures for population, growth, fertility, and age structure, plus what the UN projects for the rest of the century.