Total & land area: Afghanistan vs Australia size comparison

Australia is 11.8 times bigger by total area compared to Afghanistan: 2,969,907 sq mi vs 251,827 sq mi. Without inland water, the land area of Australia is 2,969,906 sq mi vs 251,827 sq mi for Afghanistan — a 11.8 times difference in territory size.

Afghanistan ranks 40/197 by total surface area vs 6/197 for Australia.
Afghanistan occupies 0.44% of the land mass of all countries, compared with 5.16% for Australia.
58.4% of Afghanistan's area is agricultural land vs 47.2% in Australia.
Afghanistan has 0.8% of the world's agricultural land area — Australia has 7.61%.
1.85% of Afghanistan is covered by forests, compared to 17.4% in Australia.
0.03% of the world's forests are in Afghanistan, and 3.32% are in Australia.

True size map comparison: Afghanistan vs Australia

See how Afghanistan and Australia compare in true size on the map. Drag the outlines to different latitudes to see how the Mercator projection affects their apparent size.

Total size and land area comparison

	Afghanistan	Australia
Total area	251,827 sq mi	2,969,907 sq mi
Size difference ratio	1	11.8
Total area rank	40/197	6/197
Share of all countries' surface area	0.13%	1.51%
Land area	251,827 sq mi	2,969,906 sq mi
Land area difference ratio	1	11.8
Land area rank	40/197	6/197
Share of all countries' land area	0.44%	5.16%
Population	42,647,492	27,196,812
Population density	179 ppl/mi²	9.34 ppl/mi²

Surface area by type

	Afghanistan	Australia
Forest area	4,666 sq mi	517,397 sq mi
Forest area as share of land	1.85%	17.4%
Forest area rank	119/196	6/196
World's forests share	0.03%	3.32%
Agricultural land area	147,167 sq mi	1,402,492 sq mi
Agricultural land share	58.4%	47.2%
Agricultural land area rank	35/194	3/194
Share of global agricultural land	0.8%	7.61%
Arable land	30,294 sq mi	119,652 sq mi
Arable land share	12%	4.03%
Arable land area rank	33/191	10/191
Permanent cropland	1,042 sq mi	1,486 sq mi
Permanent cropland share	0.41%	0.05%
Permanent cropland area rank	73/192	61/192
Water area	0 sq mi	1.54 sq mi
Water as share of total area	0%	0.00005%
Water area rank	168/197	152/197
Roads length	21,688 mi	607,623 mi
Land borders length	3,720 mi	0 mi
Coastline length	0 mi	16,007 mi
Share of marine protected waters	n/a	45.4%

Afghanistan vs Australia size on the map

Data sources: World Bank | Agriculture & Rural Development (2026, retrieved 2026-04-06).

GeoRank.org/size/afghanistan/australia | CC BY

The map above outlines the borders of Afghanistan and Australia but is not accurate for size comparison because it's a 2d map with Mercator projection that distorts territories near the poles. The farther a country is from the equator, the more magnified it appears. More about country size projections.