Total & land area: Eritrea vs Ethiopia size comparison

Ethiopia is 9.39 times bigger by total area compared to Eritrea: 426,373 sq mi vs 45,406 sq mi. Without inland water, the land area of Ethiopia is 435,716 sq mi vs 46,787 sq mi for Eritrea — a 9.31 times difference in territory size.

Eritrea ranks 99/197 by total surface area vs 26/197 for Ethiopia.
Eritrea occupies 0.08% of the land mass of all countries, compared with 0.76% for Ethiopia.
62.7% of Eritrea's area is agricultural land vs 34.1% in Ethiopia.
Eritrea has 0.16% of the world's agricultural land area — Ethiopia has 0.81%.
8.63% of Eritrea is covered by forests, compared to 14.9% in Ethiopia.
0.03% of the world's forests are in Eritrea, and 0.42% are in Ethiopia.

True size map comparison: Eritrea vs Ethiopia

See how Eritrea and Ethiopia 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

	Eritrea	Ethiopia
Total area	45,406 sq mi	426,373 sq mi
Size difference ratio	1	9.39
Total area rank	99/197	26/197
Share of all countries' surface area	0.02%	0.22%
Land area	46,787 sq mi	435,716 sq mi
Land area difference ratio	1	9.31
Land area rank	96/197	25/197
Share of all countries' land area	0.08%	0.76%
Population	3,535,603	132,059,767
Population density	78.6 ppl/mi²	319 ppl/mi²

Surface area by type

	Eritrea	Ethiopia
Forest area	4,038 sq mi	65,056 sq mi
Forest area as share of land	8.63%	14.9%
Forest area rank	123/196	40/196
World's forests share	0.03%	0.42%
Agricultural land area	29,313 sq mi	148,483 sq mi
Agricultural land share	62.7%	34.1%
Agricultural land area rank	79/194	34/194
Share of global agricultural land	0.16%	0.81%
Arable land	2,664 sq mi	63,321 sq mi
Arable land share	5.69%	14.5%
Arable land area rank	119/191	19/191
Permanent cropland	7.72 sq mi	7,942 sq mi
Permanent cropland share	0.02%	1.82%
Permanent cropland area rank	175/192	21/192
Water area	0 sq mi	0 sq mi
Water as share of total area	0%	0%
Water area rank	174/197	175/197
Roads length	9,942 mi	74,671 mi
Land borders length	1,143 mi	3,682 mi
Coastline length	1,388 mi	0 mi
Share of marine protected waters	0%	n/a

Eritrea vs Ethiopia size on the map

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

GeoRank.org/size/eritrea/ethiopia | CC BY

The map above outlines the borders of Eritrea and Ethiopia 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.