Total & land area: Ireland vs Switzerland size comparison

Ireland is 1.69 times bigger by total area compared to Switzerland: 26,949 sq mi vs 15,943 sq mi. Without inland water, the land area of Ireland is 26,599 sq mi vs 15,255 sq mi for Switzerland — a 1.74 times difference in territory size.

Ireland ranks 118/197 by total surface area vs 131/197 for Switzerland.
Ireland occupies 0.05% of the land mass of all countries, compared with 0.03% for Switzerland.
60.8% of Ireland's area is agricultural land vs 37.8% in Switzerland.
Ireland has 0.09% of the world's agricultural land area — Switzerland has 0.03%.
11.5% of Ireland is covered by forests, compared to 32.4% in Switzerland.
0.02% of the world's forests are in Ireland, and 0.03% are in Switzerland.

True size map comparison: Ireland vs Switzerland

See how Ireland and Switzerland 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

	Ireland	Switzerland
Total area	26,949 sq mi	15,943 sq mi
Size difference ratio	1.69	1
Total area rank	118/197	131/197
Share of all countries' surface area	0.01%	0.008%
Land area	26,599 sq mi	15,255 sq mi
Land area difference ratio	1.74	1
Land area rank	119/197	131/197
Share of all countries' land area	0.05%	0.03%
Population	5,395,790	9,005,582
Population density	207 ppl/mi²	596 ppl/mi²

Surface area by type

	Ireland	Switzerland
Forest area	3,066 sq mi	4,940 sq mi
Forest area as share of land	11.5%	32.4%
Forest area rank	130/196	116/196
World's forests share	0.02%	0.03%
Agricultural land area	16,174 sq mi	5,765 sq mi
Agricultural land share	60.8%	37.8%
Agricultural land area rank	93/194	129/194
Share of global agricultural land	0.09%	0.03%
Arable land	1,695 sq mi	1,531 sq mi
Arable land share	6.37%	10%
Arable land area rank	128/191	130/191
Permanent cropland	3.86 sq mi	97.7 sq mi
Permanent cropland share	0.01%	0.64%
Permanent cropland area rank	183/192	144/192
Water area	350 sq mi	688 sq mi
Water as share of total area	1.3%	4.31%
Water area rank	109/197	96/197
Roads length	62,031 mi	52,266 mi
Land borders length	304 mi	1,100 mi
Coastline length	900 mi	0 mi
Share of marine protected waters	2.4%	n/a

Ireland vs Switzerland size on the map

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

GeoRank.org/size/ireland/switzerland | CC BY

The map above outlines the borders of Ireland and Switzerland 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.