Total & land area: Afghanistan vs Botswana size comparison

Afghanistan is 1.12 times bigger by total area compared to Botswana: 251,827 sq mi vs 224,610 sq mi. Without inland water, the land area of Afghanistan is 251,827 sq mi vs 218,816 sq mi for Botswana — a 1.15 times difference in territory size.

Afghanistan ranks 40/197 by total surface area vs 47/197 for Botswana.
Afghanistan occupies 0.44% of the land mass of all countries, compared with 0.38% for Botswana.
58.4% of Afghanistan's area is agricultural land vs 45.6% in Botswana.
Afghanistan has 0.8% of the world's agricultural land area — Botswana has 0.54%.
1.85% of Afghanistan is covered by forests, compared to 26.3% in Botswana.
0.03% of the world's forests are in Afghanistan, and 0.37% are in Botswana.

True size map comparison: Afghanistan vs Botswana

See how Afghanistan and Botswana 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	Botswana
Total area	251,827 sq mi	224,610 sq mi
Size difference ratio	1.12	1
Total area rank	40/197	47/197
Share of all countries' surface area	0.13%	0.11%
Land area	251,827 sq mi	218,816 sq mi
Land area difference ratio	1.15	1
Land area rank	40/197	47/197
Share of all countries' land area	0.44%	0.38%
Population	42,647,492	2,521,139
Population density	179 ppl/mi²	11.9 ppl/mi²

Surface area by type

	Afghanistan	Botswana
Forest area	4,666 sq mi	57,528 sq mi
Forest area as share of land	1.85%	26.3%
Forest area rank	119/196	44/196
World's forests share	0.03%	0.37%
Agricultural land area	147,167 sq mi	99,854 sq mi
Agricultural land share	58.4%	45.6%
Agricultural land area rank	35/194	43/194
Share of global agricultural land	0.8%	0.54%
Arable land	30,294 sq mi	1,004 sq mi
Arable land share	12%	0.46%
Arable land area rank	33/191	138/191
Permanent cropland	1,042 sq mi	7.72 sq mi
Permanent cropland share	0.41%	0.004%
Permanent cropland area rank	73/192	176/192
Water area	0 sq mi	5,794 sq mi
Water as share of total area	0%	2.58%
Water area rank	168/197	34/197
Roads length	21,688 mi	19,727 mi
Land borders length	3,720 mi	2,701 mi
Coastline length	0 mi	0 mi

Afghanistan vs Botswana size on the map

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

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

The map above outlines the borders of Afghanistan and Botswana 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.