List of countries by area
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This is a list of the world's sovereign states and their dependent territories by total area, land area and water area, ranked by total area.
The entries in the list include, but those not limited to, those in the ISO 3166 standard of which includes all sovereign states, dependent territories and other territories by total area. All 193 Members of the United Nations plus the 2 observer states are assigned a number rank. Largely unrecognized states not found in ISO 3166 are included in the ranking. The areas of such largely unrecognized states are in most cases also included in the areas of their states as they claim the same territory. See the notes in the numbers for each sovereign state/dependent territory for more clarification.
Not included in the list are organizations such as the NATO or unnamed places.
The entry includes three subfields:
- Total area: Total area is the sum of all land and water areas delimited by international boundaries and/or coastlines.
- Land area: Land area is the aggregate of all surfaces delimited by international boundaries and/or coastlines, excluding inland water bodies (lakes, reservoirs, rivers)
- Water area: Water area is the sum of the surfaces of all inland water bodies, such as lakes, reservoirs, or rivers, as delimited by international boundaries and/or coastlines
Total area is taken from the United Nations Statistics Division unless otherwise noted. Land and water are taken from the CIA World Factbook unless otherwise noted. The CIA World Factbook is often used when other UN departments disagree.[1]