Total & land area: Laos vs S. Africa size comparison [2026]

South Africa is 5.16 times bigger by total area compared to Laos: 471,445 sq mi vs 91,429 sq mi. Without inland water, the land area of South Africa is 468,377 sq mi vs 89,112 sq mi for Laos — a 5.26 times difference in territory size.

Laos ranks 82/197 by total surface area vs 24/197 for South Africa.
Laos occupies 0.15% of the land mass of all countries, compared with 0.81% for South Africa.
9.91% of Laos' area is agricultural land vs 79.4% in South Africa.
Laos has 0.05% of the world's agricultural land area — S. Africa has 2.02%.
71.5% of Laos is covered by forests, compared to 14% in S. Africa.
0.41% of the world's forests are in Laos, and 0.42% are in South Africa.

True size map comparison: Laos vs South Africa

See how Laos and South Africa 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

	Laos	South Africa
Total area	91,429 sq mi	471,445 sq mi
Size difference ratio	1	5.16
Total area rank	82/197	24/197
Share of all countries' surface area	0.05%	0.24%
Land area	89,112 sq mi	468,377 sq mi
Land area difference ratio	1	5.26
Land area rank	79/197	24/197
Share of all countries' land area	0.15%	0.81%
Population	7,769,819	64,007,187
Population density	89.5 ppl/mi²	139.8 ppl/mi²

Surface area by type

	Laos	South Africa
Forest area	63,676 sq mi	65,409 sq mi
Forest area as share of land	71.5%	14%
Forest area rank	41/196	39/196
World's forests share	0.41%	0.42%
Agricultural land area	8,831 sq mi	371,975 sq mi
Agricultural land share	9.91%	79.4%
Agricultural land area rank	113/194	13/194
Share of global agricultural land	0.05%	2.02%
Arable land	4,726 sq mi	46,332 sq mi
Arable land share	5.3%	9.89%
Arable land area rank	100/191	24/191
Permanent cropland	1,491 sq mi	1,595 sq mi
Permanent cropland share	1.67%	0.34%
Permanent cropland area rank	60/192	57/192
Water area	2,317 sq mi	3,068 sq mi
Water as share of total area	2.53%	0.65%
Water area rank	61/197	56/197
Roads length	24,598 mi	466,028 mi
Land borders length	3,277 mi	3,258 mi
Coastline length	0 mi	1,739 mi
Share of marine protected waters	n/a	15.4%

Laos vs South Africa size on the map

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

GeoRank.org/size/laos/south-africa | CC BY

The map above outlines the borders of Laos and South Africa 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.