Total & land area: Brazil vs South Africa size comparison

Brazil is 6.97 times bigger by total area compared to South Africa: 3,287,956 sq mi vs 471,445 sq mi. Without inland water, the land area of Brazil is 3,227,096 sq mi vs 468,377 sq mi for South Africa — a 6.89 times difference in territory size.

Brazil ranks 5/197 by total surface area vs 24/197 for South Africa.
Brazil occupies 5.61% of the land mass of all countries, compared with 0.81% for South Africa.
28.3% of Brazil's area is agricultural land vs 79.4% in South Africa.
Brazil has 4.96% of the world's agricultural land area — S. Africa has 2.02%.
59% of Brazil is covered by forests, compared to 14% in S. Africa.
12.2% of the world's forests are in Brazil, and 0.42% are in South Africa.

True size map comparison: Brazil vs South Africa

See how Brazil and South Africa 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

	Brazil	South Africa
Total area	3,287,956 sq mi	471,445 sq mi
Size difference ratio	6.97	1
Total area rank	5/197	24/197
Share of all countries' surface area	1.67%	0.24%
Land area	3,227,096 sq mi	468,377 sq mi
Land area difference ratio	6.89	1
Land area rank	5/197	24/197
Share of all countries' land area	5.61%	0.81%
Population	211,998,573	64,007,187
Population density	66.2 ppl/mi²	139.8 ppl/mi²

Surface area by type

	Brazil	South Africa
Forest area	1,903,402 sq mi	65,409 sq mi
Forest area as share of land	59%	14%
Forest area rank	2/196	39/196
World's forests share	12.2%	0.42%
Agricultural land area	914,131 sq mi	371,975 sq mi
Agricultural land share	28.3%	79.4%
Agricultural land area rank	4/194	13/194
Share of global agricultural land	4.96%	2.02%
Arable land	214,835 sq mi	46,332 sq mi
Arable land share	6.66%	9.89%
Arable land area rank	5/191	24/191
Permanent cropland	29,946 sq mi	1,595 sq mi
Permanent cropland share	0.93%	0.34%
Permanent cropland area rank	5/192	57/192
Water area	60,860 sq mi	3,068 sq mi
Water as share of total area	1.85%	0.65%
Water area rank	6/197	56/197
Roads length	1,242,742 mi	466,028 mi
Land borders length	10,032 mi	3,258 mi
Coastline length	4,655 mi	1,739 mi
Share of marine protected waters	26.6%	15.4%

Brazil vs South Africa size on the map

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

GeoRank.org/size/brazil/south-africa | CC BY

The map above outlines the borders of Brazil and South Africa 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.