Total & land area: Afghanistan vs Belgium size comparison

Afghanistan is 21.3 times bigger by total area compared to Belgium: 251,827 sq mi vs 11,849 sq mi. Without inland water, the land area of Afghanistan is 251,827 sq mi vs 11,774 sq mi for Belgium — a 21.4 times difference in territory size.

Afghanistan ranks 40/197 by total surface area vs 137/197 for Belgium.
Afghanistan occupies 0.44% of the land mass of all countries, compared with 0.02% for Belgium.
58.4% of Afghanistan's area is agricultural land vs 44.4% in Belgium.
Afghanistan has 0.8% of the world's agricultural land area — Belgium has 0.03%.
1.85% of Afghanistan is covered by forests, compared to 22.6% in Belgium.
0.03% of the world's forests are in Afghanistan, and 0.02% are in Belgium.

True size map comparison: Afghanistan vs Belgium

See how Afghanistan and Belgium 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	Belgium
Total area	251,827 sq mi	11,849 sq mi
Size difference ratio	21.3	1
Total area rank	40/197	137/197
Share of all countries' surface area	0.13%	0.006%
Land area	251,827 sq mi	11,774 sq mi
Land area difference ratio	21.4	1
Land area rank	40/197	136/197
Share of all countries' land area	0.44%	0.02%
Population	42,647,492	11,858,610
Population density	179 ppl/mi²	1,011 ppl/mi²

Surface area by type

	Afghanistan	Belgium
Forest area	4,666 sq mi	2,661 sq mi
Forest area as share of land	1.85%	22.6%
Forest area rank	119/196	133/196
World's forests share	0.03%	0.02%
Agricultural land area	147,167 sq mi	5,225 sq mi
Agricultural land share	58.4%	44.4%
Agricultural land area rank	35/194	133/194
Share of global agricultural land	0.8%	0.03%
Arable land	30,294 sq mi	3,333 sq mi
Arable land share	12%	28.3%
Arable land area rank	33/191	112/191
Permanent cropland	1,042 sq mi	89.6 sq mi
Permanent cropland share	0.41%	0.76%
Permanent cropland area rank	73/192	145/192
Water area	0 sq mi	74.9 sq mi
Water as share of total area	0%	0.63%
Water area rank	168/197	129/197
Roads length	21,688 mi	73,579 mi
Land borders length	3,720 mi	806 mi
Coastline length	0 mi	41.3 mi
Share of marine protected waters	n/a	38.3%

Afghanistan vs Belgium size on the map

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

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

The map above outlines the borders of Afghanistan and Belgium 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.