How big is India?
India encloses approximately 3,155,830 km² in this site’s Natural Earth boundary dataset. India is a useful reference for high-latitude comparisons because much of its outline lies closer to the equator than Greenland, Canada or Russia. Its area estimate comes from the same polygon calculation used for every entry in this atlas.
- Map-derived area
- 3,155,830 km²
- Area order
- 7 of 241 mapped places
- Representative latitude
- 22.7° N
- Mercator area scale at that point
- 1.2× its equatorial scale
What the map shows
At India’s representative anchor, Mercator inflates local area much less than it does around Greenland. Comparing the two as numbers or in the equal-area view avoids treating that difference in map scale as a difference on the ground.
The Mercator factor above is calculated at one representative point. It changes across the country and describes map enlargement, not a change in its real area. See India at its original position, then open the equal-area view.
India compared with Greenland
India is 1.46× the area of Greenland in this dataset. The bars below encode area as length, with the larger area spanning the full line.
Read the full comparison or place the outlines together on the map.
Places nearby in the area order
The entries immediately above and below India in the same mapped dataset are shown here. A different source or an official land-area ranking can put close places in another order.
What this area figure includes
The coastline, islands and land boundaries follow the Natural Earth feature used by the map. An official national area figure may use different boundaries or include water differently, so a near tie with another place needs a stated source.
The area is calculated from the original Natural Earth 1:50m Admin 0 countries polygon. It is a consistent estimate for this map, not a certified land or total-area statistic. Read the area definitions before using the figure in research or teaching.