Total & land area: Serbia vs South Africa size comparison

South Africa is 13.8 times bigger by total area compared to Serbia: 471,445 sq mi vs 34,170 sq mi. Without inland water, the land area of South Africa is 468,377 sq mi vs 32,467 sq mi for Serbia — a 14.4 times difference in territory size.

Serbia ranks 111/197 by total surface area vs 24/197 for South Africa.
Serbia occupies 0.06% of the land mass of all countries, compared with 0.81% for South Africa.
40.4% of Serbia's area is agricultural land vs 79.4% in South Africa.
Serbia has 0.07% of the world's agricultural land area — S. Africa has 2.02%.
32.4% of Serbia is covered by forests, compared to 14% in S. Africa.
0.07% of the world's forests are in Serbia, and 0.42% are in South Africa.

True size map comparison: Serbia vs South Africa

See how Serbia 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

	Serbia	South Africa
Total area	34,170 sq mi	471,445 sq mi
Size difference ratio	1	13.8
Total area rank	111/197	24/197
Share of all countries' surface area	0.02%	0.24%
Land area	32,467 sq mi	468,377 sq mi
Land area difference ratio	1	14.4
Land area rank	111/197	24/197
Share of all countries' land area	0.06%	0.81%
Population	6,586,476	64,007,187
Population density	200 ppl/mi²	139.8 ppl/mi²

Surface area by type

	Serbia	South Africa
Forest area	10,516 sq mi	65,409 sq mi
Forest area as share of land	32.4%	14%
Forest area rank	94/196	39/196
World's forests share	0.07%	0.42%
Agricultural land area	13,112 sq mi	371,975 sq mi
Agricultural land share	40.4%	79.4%
Agricultural land area rank	102/194	13/194
Share of global agricultural land	0.07%	2.02%
Arable land	10,050 sq mi	46,332 sq mi
Arable land share	31%	9.89%
Arable land area rank	71/191	24/191
Permanent cropland	826 sq mi	1,595 sq mi
Permanent cropland share	2.54%	0.34%
Permanent cropland area rank	81/192	57/192
Water area	1,702 sq mi	3,068 sq mi
Water as share of total area	4.98%	0.65%
Water area rank	69/197	56/197
Roads length	28,222 mi	466,028 mi
Land borders length	1,443 mi	3,258 mi
Coastline length	0 mi	1,739 mi
Share of marine protected waters	n/a	15.4%

Serbia vs South Africa size on the map

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

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

The map above outlines the borders of Serbia 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.