Total size & land area: Afghanistan vs Switzerland

Afghanistan is 15.8 times bigger by total area compared to Switzerland: 251,827 sq mi vs 15,943 sq mi. Without inland water, the land area of Afghanistan is 251,827 sq mi vs 15,255 sq mi for Switzerland — a 16.5 times difference in territory size.

Afghanistan ranks 40/197 by total surface area vs 131/197 for Switzerland.
Afghanistan occupies 0.44% of the land mass of all countries, compared with 0.03% for Switzerland.
58.4% of Afghanistan's area is agricultural land vs 37.8% in Switzerland.
Afghanistan has 0.8% of the world's agricultural land area — Switzerland has 0.03%.
1.85% of Afghanistan is covered by forests, compared to 32.4% in Switzerland.
0.03% of the world's forests are in Afghanistan, and 0.03% are in Switzerland.

True size map comparison: Afghanistan vs Switzerland

See how Afghanistan and Switzerland 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	Switzerland
Total area	251,827 sq mi	15,943 sq mi
Size difference ratio	15.8	1
Total area rank	40/197	131/197
Share of all countries' surface area	0.13%	0.008%
Land area	251,827 sq mi	15,255 sq mi
Land area difference ratio	16.5	1
Land area rank	40/197	131/197
Share of all countries' land area	0.44%	0.03%
Population	42,647,492	9,005,582
Population density	179 ppl/mi²	596 ppl/mi²

Surface area by type

	Afghanistan	Switzerland
Forest area	4,666 sq mi	4,940 sq mi
Forest area as share of land	1.85%	32.4%
Forest area rank	119/196	116/196
World's forests share	0.03%	0.03%
Agricultural land area	147,167 sq mi	5,765 sq mi
Agricultural land share	58.4%	37.8%
Agricultural land area rank	35/194	129/194
Share of global agricultural land	0.8%	0.03%
Arable land	30,294 sq mi	1,531 sq mi
Arable land share	12%	10%
Arable land area rank	33/191	130/191
Permanent cropland	1,042 sq mi	97.7 sq mi
Permanent cropland share	0.41%	0.64%
Permanent cropland area rank	73/192	144/192
Water area	0 sq mi	688 sq mi
Water as share of total area	0%	4.31%
Water area rank	168/197	96/197
Roads length	21,688 mi	52,266 mi
Land borders length	3,720 mi	1,100 mi
Coastline length	0 mi	0 mi

Afghanistan vs Switzerland size on the map

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

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

The map above outlines the borders of Afghanistan and Switzerland 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.