#Australia
You could fit nine entire countries inside Australia β and still have room.
Covering nearly 3 million square miles (7.7 million kmΒ²), Australia is the sixth-largest country in the world. But maps rarely show its true scale. Most world maps distort land near the poles, making countries like Greenland appear much larger than they are β and Australia much smaller.
To correct for this, researchers stacked other nations inside its borders. The result: Australia can contain India, Mexico, Spain, Japan, Germany, the UK, Ukraine, Vietnam, and Ireland β all at once. These countries combined hold over 2 billion people. Australia has just 27 million.
Thatβs because nearly 40% of the continent is uninhabitable. Much of Australiaβs interior is scorching desert, where summer highs exceed 110Β°F (43Β°C) and rainfall is among the lowest on Earth. This vast region β known as the Outback β makes long-term settlement nearly impossible.
Instead, more than 85% of Australians live in coastal cities like Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane. These urban clusters fringe a vast, mostly empty interior β an extreme case of population imbalance rarely seen at this scale.
And yet, the country ranks 14th in global GDP. Itβs rich in minerals, agriculture, and coastline. Its economic weight far outstrips its population size.
Australia reminds us that area isnβt everything. Geography shapes how and where people live. Sometimes, a country can be massive on paper and nearly empty in reality.
πΈCredit: Visual Capitalist
