Antarctica is about 14.2 million square kilometers in area, which makes it the fifth-largest continent on Earth and a little smaller than South America but much bigger than Europe or Australia.

How big is Antarctica?

  • The continent (including its fringing ice shelves and islands) covers roughly 14–14.2 million square kilometers, or about 5.4–5.5 million square miles.
  • This makes it the fifth largest continent, larger than Europe and Australia, and slightly less than 1.5 times the size of the United States.

Size changes with the seasons

  • In winter, sea ice around Antarctica expands so much that the “effective” icy area roughly doubles to around 28–30 million square kilometers.
  • In late summer, that surrounding sea ice shrinks dramatically again, leaving mainly the core 14-million-square-kilometer land-and-ice mass.

Easy comparisons

  • About twice the size of Australia, and larger than the USA plus Mexico combined.
  • A bit more than half the size of Africa and a bit more than half the size of North America.

HTML fact table

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Measure Value Notes
Core area ≈14.2 million km² Fifth- largest continent.
Core area (mi²) ≈5.5 million mi² Commonly quoted figure.
Winter sea-ice + land ≈28–30 million km² Area roughly doubles in winter.
Relative to USA ≈1.4–1.5 × USA “Slightly less than 1.5 times the size of the US.”
Relative to Europe Much larger Europe ≈10.2 million km² vs. Antarctica ≈14.2 million km².
Relative to Australia About 2 × Antarctica is roughly twice Australia’s area.
Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.