Australia's Size Compared

 Australia/British Isles

Australia is one of about 210 countries. At 7617930 km², it comprises just five percent of the world's land area (149,450,000 km²), yet it is the planet's sixth largest country after Russia, Canada, China, USA, and Brazil. Australia is also the smallest continental land mass (or largest island).

Whilst the areas of Canada and the United States are similar to Europe, their populations are markedly smaller, by factors of eighteen (3 persons per km²) and two (29 persons per km²) respectively. Australia is not far behind in size, but its population compared to Europe is 30 times smaller. Japan's population density is 336 persons per km² and the United Kingdom's is 244 persons per km², compared to Australia's 2.5 persons per km².

An interesting comparison between the countries in the table is the ratio of the amount of arable land to population, which provides some insight into the possible environmental stresses being exerted on their landscapes.

Australia/Europe	Australia/British Isles	Australia/Japan	Australia/United States

All information provided in the above table is correct at the time of publication. The data for the statistics is taken from the World Factbook 2005.