Total & land area: Ethiopia vs Iceland size comparison

Ethiopia is 10.7 times bigger by total area compared to Iceland: 426,373 sq mi vs 39,770 sq mi. Without inland water, the land area of Ethiopia is 435,716 sq mi vs 38,931 sq mi for Iceland — a 11.2 times difference in territory size.

Ethiopia ranks 26/197 by total surface area vs 106/197 for Iceland.
Ethiopia occupies 0.76% of the land mass of all countries, compared with 0.07% for Iceland.
34.1% of Ethiopia's area is agricultural land vs 16.2% in Iceland.
Ethiopia has 0.81% of the world's agricultural land area — Iceland has 0.03%.
14.9% of Ethiopia is covered by forests, compared to 0.53% in Iceland.
0.42% of the world's forests are in Ethiopia, and 0.001% are in Iceland.

True size map comparison: Ethiopia vs Iceland

See how Ethiopia and Iceland 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

	Ethiopia	Iceland
Total area	426,373 sq mi	39,770 sq mi
Size difference ratio	10.7	1
Total area rank	26/197	106/197
Share of all countries' surface area	0.22%	0.02%
Land area	435,716 sq mi	38,931 sq mi
Land area difference ratio	11.2	1
Land area rank	25/197	104/197
Share of all countries' land area	0.76%	0.07%
Population	132,059,767	386,506
Population density	319 ppl/mi²	10.2 ppl/mi²

Surface area by type

	Ethiopia	Iceland
Forest area	65,056 sq mi	205.8 sq mi
Forest area as share of land	14.9%	0.53%
Forest area rank	40/196	161/196
World's forests share	0.42%	0.001%
Agricultural land area	148,483 sq mi	6,324 sq mi
Agricultural land share	34.1%	16.2%
Agricultural land area rank	34/194	127/194
Share of global agricultural land	0.81%	0.03%
Arable land	63,321 sq mi	467 sq mi
Arable land share	14.5%	1.2%
Arable land area rank	19/191	144/191
Permanent cropland	7,942 sq mi	n/a
Permanent cropland share	1.82%	n/a
Permanent cropland area rank	21/192	n/a
Water area	0 sq mi	839 sq mi
Water as share of total area	0%	2.11%
Water area rank	175/197	93/197
Roads length	74,671 mi	8,014 mi
Land borders length	3,682 mi	0 mi
Coastline length	0 mi	3,088 mi
Share of marine protected waters	n/a	0.5%

Ethiopia vs Iceland size on the map

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

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

The map above outlines the borders of Ethiopia and Iceland 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.