how big is australia compared to america
Australia is a very large country, but the United States is still noticeably bigger in land area and vastly larger in population.
Quick Scoop
- Australia: about 7.7 million km² , making it the sixth‑largest country in the world.
- United States (including Alaska and Hawaii): about 9.1 million km² , so the U.S. is roughly 18–20% larger than Australia in land area.
- Population contrast is huge: Australia has around 25 million people versus well over 300 million in the U.S., so the U.S. has more than ten times as many people.
Side‑by‑side size feel
- If you overlaid Australia on a map of the U.S., it would stretch almost from the East Coast to the West Coast , so in “feel,” Australia is continental in scale, not a small island.
- Excluding Alaska and Hawaii, the “lower 48” U.S. states come out only somewhat larger than Australia, so they are closer in size than most map projections make them look.
Simple comparison table
| Feature | Australia | United States |
|---|---|---|
| Approx. land area | ~7.7 million km² | [1][3]~9.1 million km² | [5]
| Global size rank | 6th largest country | [9][1]4th largest country | [9]
| Population (2017 example) | ~24 million | [5]~323 million | [5]
In everyday terms: Australia is a continent‑sized country almost as wide as the U.S., but the U.S. edges it out in land area and absolutely dwarfs it in population.
Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.