Switzerland is a relatively small country: it covers about 41,285–41,291 square kilometers, which is roughly 15,940–15,943 square miles.

Quick size snapshot

  • Area: about 41,000+ square kilometers (≈16,000 square miles).
  • Shape: an irregular quadrilateral in the middle of Europe.
  • Extent: about 350 km east–west and about 220 km north–south.

In practical terms, Switzerland is about half the size of Scotland or a bit larger than the Netherlands.

A bit more context

  • Total surface (including lakes and rivers): around 41,290 square kilometers.
  • Land area (mostly excluding major inland water): about 39,500 square kilometers.
  • Population: roughly 8.9 million people, making it densely populated for its size.

You can imagine Switzerland as a compact, mountainous country where the Alps cover a large share of the territory, but only around 10% of the population lives in those high Alpine areas.

Simple HTML table of basic stats

html

<table>
  <tr>
    <th>Metric</th>
    <th>Value</th>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>Total area (km²)</td>
    <td>≈41,285–41,291 km²</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>Total area (mi²)</td>
    <td>≈15,940–15,943 mi²</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>Max width (E–W)</td>
    <td>≈350 km</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>Max height (N–S)</td>
    <td>≈220 km</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>Land area (km²)</td>
    <td>≈39,500 km²</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>Population (approx.)</td>
    <td>≈8.9 million</td>
  </tr>
</table>

TL;DR

Switzerland is a small, compact European country of about 41,000 square kilometers (around 16,000 square miles), roughly half the size of Scotland but quite densely populated.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.