Total & land area: Afghanistan vs Ethiopia size comparison

Ethiopia is 1.69 times bigger by total area compared to Afghanistan: 426,373 sq mi vs 251,827 sq mi. Without inland water, the land area of Ethiopia is 435,716 sq mi vs 251,827 sq mi for Afghanistan — a 1.73 times difference in territory size.

Afghanistan ranks 40/197 by total surface area vs 26/197 for Ethiopia.
Afghanistan occupies 0.44% of the land mass of all countries, compared with 0.76% for Ethiopia.
58.4% of Afghanistan's area is agricultural land vs 34.1% in Ethiopia.
Afghanistan has 0.8% of the world's agricultural land area — Ethiopia has 0.81%.
1.85% of Afghanistan is covered by forests, compared to 14.9% in Ethiopia.
0.03% of the world's forests are in Afghanistan, and 0.42% are in Ethiopia.

True size map comparison: Afghanistan vs Ethiopia

See how Afghanistan and Ethiopia 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	Ethiopia
Total area	251,827 sq mi	426,373 sq mi
Size difference ratio	1	1.69
Total area rank	40/197	26/197
Share of all countries' surface area	0.13%	0.22%
Land area	251,827 sq mi	435,716 sq mi
Land area difference ratio	1	1.73
Land area rank	40/197	25/197
Share of all countries' land area	0.44%	0.76%
Population	42,647,492	132,059,767
Population density	179 ppl/mi²	319 ppl/mi²

Surface area by type

	Afghanistan	Ethiopia
Forest area	4,666 sq mi	65,056 sq mi
Forest area as share of land	1.85%	14.9%
Forest area rank	119/196	40/196
World's forests share	0.03%	0.42%
Agricultural land area	147,167 sq mi	148,483 sq mi
Agricultural land share	58.4%	34.1%
Agricultural land area rank	35/194	34/194
Share of global agricultural land	0.8%	0.81%
Arable land	30,294 sq mi	63,321 sq mi
Arable land share	12%	14.5%
Arable land area rank	33/191	19/191
Permanent cropland	1,042 sq mi	7,942 sq mi
Permanent cropland share	0.41%	1.82%
Permanent cropland area rank	73/192	21/192
Water area	0 sq mi	0 sq mi
Water as share of total area	0%	0%
Water area rank	168/197	175/197
Roads length	21,688 mi	74,671 mi
Land borders length	3,720 mi	3,682 mi
Coastline length	0 mi	0 mi

Afghanistan vs Ethiopia size on the map

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

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

The map above outlines the borders of Afghanistan and Ethiopia 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.