Total & land area: Iceland vs South Korea size comparison

Iceland is slightly bigger by total area compared to South Korea: 39,770 sq mi vs 38,724 sq mi. Without inland water, the land area of Iceland is 38,931 sq mi vs 37,684 sq mi for South Korea.

Iceland ranks 106/197 by total surface area vs 107/197 for South Korea.
Iceland occupies 0.07% of the land mass of all countries, compared with 0.07% for South Korea.
16.2% of Iceland's area is agricultural land vs 16.1% in South Korea.
Iceland has 0.03% of the world's agricultural land area — S. Korea has 0.03%.
0.53% of Iceland is covered by forests, compared to 64.1% in S. Korea.
0.001% of the world's forests are in Iceland, and 0.15% are in South Korea.

True size map comparison: Iceland vs South Korea

See how Iceland 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

	Iceland	South Korea
Total area	39,770 sq mi	38,724 sq mi
Size difference ratio	1.03	1
Total area rank	106/197	107/197
Share of all countries' surface area	0.02%	0.02%
Land area	38,931 sq mi	37,684 sq mi
Land area difference ratio	1.03	1
Land area rank	104/197	105/197
Share of all countries' land area	0.07%	0.07%
Population	386,506	51,751,065
Population density	10.2 ppl/mi²	1,371 ppl/mi²

Surface area by type

	Iceland	South Korea
Forest area	205.8 sq mi	24,158 sq mi
Forest area as share of land	0.53%	64.1%
Forest area rank	161/196	67/196
World's forests share	0.001%	0.15%
Agricultural land area	6,324 sq mi	6,054 sq mi
Agricultural land share	16.2%	16.1%
Agricultural land area rank	127/194	128/194
Share of global agricultural land	0.03%	0.03%
Arable land	467 sq mi	5,622 sq mi
Arable land share	1.2%	14.9%
Arable land area rank	144/191	92/191
Permanent cropland	n/a	792 sq mi
Permanent cropland share	n/a	2.1%
Permanent cropland area rank	n/a	83/192
Water area	839 sq mi	1,041 sq mi
Water as share of total area	2.11%	2.69%
Water area rank	93/197	85/197
Roads length	8,014 mi	68,794 mi
Land borders length	0 mi	147.3 mi
Coastline length	3,088 mi	1,499 mi
Share of marine protected waters	0.5%	2.2%

Iceland vs South Korea size on the map

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

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

The map above outlines the borders of Iceland 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.