Total & land area: China vs S. Korea size comparison [2026]

China is 95.7 times bigger by total area compared to South Korea: 3,705,407 sq mi vs 38,724 sq mi. Without inland water, the land area of China is 3,624,808 sq mi vs 37,684 sq mi for South Korea — a 96.2 times difference in territory size.

China ranks 4/197 by total surface area vs 107/197 for South Korea.
China occupies 6.3% of the land mass of all countries, compared with 0.07% for South Korea.
55.4% of China's area is agricultural land vs 16.1% in South Korea.
China has 10.9% of the world's agricultural land area — S. Korea has 0.03%.
24% of China is covered by forests, compared to 64.1% in S. Korea.
5.58% of the world's forests are in China, and 0.15% are in South Korea.

True size map comparison: China vs South Korea

See how China and South Korea 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

	China	South Korea
Total area	3,705,407 sq mi	38,724 sq mi
Size difference ratio	95.7	1
Total area rank	4/197	107/197
Share of all countries' surface area	1.88%	0.02%
Land area	3,624,808 sq mi	37,684 sq mi
Land area difference ratio	96.2	1
Land area rank	2/197	105/197
Share of all countries' land area	6.3%	0.07%
Population	1,408,975,000	51,751,065
Population density	387 ppl/mi²	1,371 ppl/mi²

Surface area by type

	China	South Korea
Forest area	871,112 sq mi	24,158 sq mi
Forest area as share of land	24%	64.1%
Forest area rank	5/196	67/196
World's forests share	5.58%	0.15%
Agricultural land area	2,009,326 sq mi	6,054 sq mi
Agricultural land share	55.4%	16.1%
Agricultural land area rank	1/194	128/194
Share of global agricultural land	10.9%	0.03%
Arable land	418,639 sq mi	5,622 sq mi
Arable land share	11.5%	14.9%
Arable land area rank	4/191	92/191
Permanent cropland	73,950 sq mi	792 sq mi
Permanent cropland share	2.04%	2.1%
Permanent cropland area rank	2/192	83/192
Water area	80,599 sq mi	1,041 sq mi
Water as share of total area	2.18%	2.69%
Water area rank	5/197	85/197
Roads length	3,411,576 mi	68,794 mi
Land borders length	13,954 mi	147.3 mi
Coastline length	9,010 mi	1,499 mi
Share of marine protected waters	4.8%	2.2%

China vs South Korea size on the map

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

GeoRank.org/size/china/south-korea | CC BY

The map above outlines the borders of China and South Korea 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.