Total & land area: Afghanistan vs Madagascar size comparison

Afghanistan is 1.11 times bigger by total area compared to Madagascar: 251,827 sq mi vs 226,756 sq mi. Without inland water, the land area of Afghanistan is 251,827 sq mi vs 224,634 sq mi for Madagascar — a 1.12 times difference in territory size.

Afghanistan ranks 40/197 by total surface area vs 46/197 for Madagascar.
Afghanistan occupies 0.44% of the land mass of all countries, compared with 0.39% for Madagascar.
58.4% of Afghanistan's area is agricultural land vs 70.3% in Madagascar.
Afghanistan has 0.8% of the world's agricultural land area — Madagascar has 0.86%.
1.85% of Afghanistan is covered by forests, compared to 21.3% in Madagascar.
0.03% of the world's forests are in Afghanistan, and 0.31% are in Madagascar.

True size map comparison: Afghanistan vs Madagascar

See how Afghanistan and Madagascar 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	Madagascar
Total area	251,827 sq mi	226,756 sq mi
Size difference ratio	1.11	1
Total area rank	40/197	46/197
Share of all countries' surface area	0.13%	0.12%
Land area	251,827 sq mi	224,634 sq mi
Land area difference ratio	1.12	1
Land area rank	40/197	44/197
Share of all countries' land area	0.44%	0.39%
Population	42,647,492	31,964,956
Population density	179 ppl/mi²	149.3 ppl/mi²

Surface area by type

	Afghanistan	Madagascar
Forest area	4,666 sq mi	47,839 sq mi
Forest area as share of land	1.85%	21.3%
Forest area rank	119/196	48/196
World's forests share	0.03%	0.31%
Agricultural land area	147,167 sq mi	157,896 sq mi
Agricultural land share	58.4%	70.3%
Agricultural land area rank	35/194	26/194
Share of global agricultural land	0.8%	0.86%
Arable land	30,294 sq mi	11,583 sq mi
Arable land share	12%	5.16%
Arable land area rank	33/191	67/191
Permanent cropland	1,042 sq mi	2,317 sq mi
Permanent cropland share	0.41%	1.03%
Permanent cropland area rank	73/192	51/192
Water area	0 sq mi	2,122 sq mi
Water as share of total area	0%	0.94%
Water area rank	168/197	63/197
Roads length	21,688 mi	19,660 mi
Land borders length	3,720 mi	0 mi
Coastline length	0 mi	3,000 mi
Share of marine protected waters	n/a	1.3%

Afghanistan vs Madagascar size on the map

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

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

The map above outlines the borders of Afghanistan and Madagascar 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.