Greenland vs Australia — true size compared
Australia is about 3.55× the area of Greenland — a difference of roughly 5,525,938 km² (2,133,575 sq mi). You could fit Greenland inside Australia about 3 times.
Greenland covers 2,166,086 km² (836,330 sq mi), the world's largest island — often massively oversized on web maps.
Australia covers 7,692,024 km² (2,969,907 sq mi) — the world's sixth-largest country.
Overlay Greenland and Australia on the map →
Why maps make Greenland and Australia look wrong
Almost every web map — Google Maps, Apple Maps, OpenStreetMap — uses the Mercator projection. Mercator preserves shape locally, but it stretches land the further you get from the equator. Greenland ends up looking bigger than Africa. Alaska rivals the contiguous US. That's why Greenland and Australia can look similar on a world map even when one is many times larger. The only fair way to compare is to lift one outline off the map and drop it on top of the other at true scale.
Quick facts
- Greenland: 2,166,086 km² · 836,330 sq mi
- Australia: 7,692,024 km² · 2,969,905 sq mi
- Ratio: Australia is 3.55× Greenland
- Absolute difference: 5,525,938 km² (2,133,575 sq mi)
- Greenland fits inside Australia ~3 times
Frequently asked
Is Greenland bigger than Australia?
Australia is the bigger of the two, at 7,692,024 km² compared to 2,166,086 km² for Greenland.
How many times does Greenland fit inside Australia?
About 3 times — the exact ratio is 3.55×.
Why does the map exaggerate one of them?
Mercator projection. Places far from the equator get visually stretched. Overlay the two at true scale to see the honest comparison.