Total & land area: Madagascar vs Mali size comparison [2026]

Mali is 2.11 times bigger by total area compared to Madagascar: 478,841 sq mi vs 226,756 sq mi. Without inland water, the land area of Mali is 471,118 sq mi vs 224,634 sq mi for Madagascar — a 2.1 times difference in territory size.

Madagascar ranks 46/197 by total surface area vs 23/197 for Mali.
Madagascar occupies 0.39% of the land mass of all countries, compared with 0.82% for Mali.
70.3% of Madagascar's area is agricultural land vs 35.5% in Mali.
Madagascar has 0.86% of the world's agricultural land area — Mali has 0.91%.
21.3% of Madagascar is covered by forests, compared to 10.9% in Mali.
0.31% of the world's forests are in Madagascar, and 0.33% are in Mali.

True size map comparison: Madagascar vs Mali

See how Madagascar and Mali 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

	Madagascar	Mali
Total area	226,756 sq mi	478,841 sq mi
Size difference ratio	1	2.11
Total area rank	46/197	23/197
Share of all countries' surface area	0.12%	0.24%
Land area	224,634 sq mi	471,118 sq mi
Land area difference ratio	1	2.1
Land area rank	44/197	23/197
Share of all countries' land area	0.39%	0.82%
Population	31,964,956	24,478,595
Population density	149.3 ppl/mi²	55.1 ppl/mi²

Surface area by type

	Madagascar	Mali
Forest area	47,839 sq mi	51,336 sq mi
Forest area as share of land	21.3%	10.9%
Forest area rank	48/196	47/196
World's forests share	0.31%	0.33%
Agricultural land area	157,896 sq mi	167,103 sq mi
Agricultural land share	70.3%	35.5%
Agricultural land area rank	26/194	22/194
Share of global agricultural land	0.86%	0.91%
Arable land	11,583 sq mi	32,205 sq mi
Arable land share	5.16%	6.84%
Arable land area rank	67/191	30/191
Permanent cropland	2,317 sq mi	1,152 sq mi
Permanent cropland share	1.03%	0.24%
Permanent cropland area rank	51/192	69/192
Water area	2,122 sq mi	7,723 sq mi
Water as share of total area	0.94%	1.61%
Water area rank	63/197	28/197
Roads length	19,660 mi	86,437 mi
Land borders length	0 mi	4,914 mi
Coastline length	3,000 mi	0 mi
Share of marine protected waters	1.3%	n/a

Madagascar vs Mali size on the map

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

GeoRank.org/size/madagascar/mali | CC BY

The map above outlines the borders of Madagascar and Mali 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.