Total & land area: Afghanistan vs Mauritania size comparison

Mauritania is 1.58 times bigger by total area compared to Afghanistan: 397,955 sq mi vs 251,827 sq mi. Without inland water, the land area of Mauritania is 397,955 sq mi vs 251,827 sq mi for Afghanistan — a 1.58 times difference in territory size.

Afghanistan ranks 40/197 by total surface area vs 28/197 for Mauritania.
Afghanistan occupies 0.44% of the land mass of all countries, compared with 0.69% for Mauritania.
58.4% of Afghanistan's area is agricultural land vs 38.5% in Mauritania.
Afghanistan has 0.8% of the world's agricultural land area — Mauritania has 0.83%.
1.85% of Afghanistan is covered by forests, compared to 0.29% in Mauritania.
0.03% of the world's forests are in Afghanistan, and 0.007% are in Mauritania.

True size map comparison: Afghanistan vs Mauritania

See how Afghanistan and Mauritania 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	Mauritania
Total area	251,827 sq mi	397,955 sq mi
Size difference ratio	1	1.58
Total area rank	40/197	28/197
Share of all countries' surface area	0.13%	0.2%
Land area	251,827 sq mi	397,955 sq mi
Land area difference ratio	1	1.58
Land area rank	40/197	28/197
Share of all countries' land area	0.44%	0.69%
Population	42,647,492	5,169,395
Population density	179 ppl/mi²	13.7 ppl/mi²

Surface area by type

	Afghanistan	Mauritania
Forest area	4,666 sq mi	1,145 sq mi
Forest area as share of land	1.85%	0.29%
Forest area rank	119/196	149/196
World's forests share	0.03%	0.007%
Agricultural land area	147,167 sq mi	153,321 sq mi
Agricultural land share	58.4%	38.5%
Agricultural land area rank	35/194	28/194
Share of global agricultural land	0.8%	0.83%
Arable land	30,294 sq mi	1,737 sq mi
Arable land share	12%	0.44%
Arable land area rank	33/191	125/191
Permanent cropland	1,042 sq mi	38.6 sq mi
Permanent cropland share	0.41%	0.01%
Permanent cropland area rank	73/192	153/192
Water area	0 sq mi	0 sq mi
Water as share of total area	0%	0%
Water area rank	168/197	182/197
Roads length	21,688 mi	7,614 mi
Land borders length	3,720 mi	3,108 mi
Coastline length	0 mi	469 mi
Share of marine protected waters	n/a	3.7%

Afghanistan vs Mauritania size on the map

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

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

The map above outlines the borders of Afghanistan and Mauritania 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.