Australia vs USA size

Compare the outlines

Maps use simplified Natural Earth public-domain outlines at a shared projection scale. Small and distant islands are omitted, including Hawaii in the US drawing. The numerical table includes the full stated territory; the outlines are illustrative, not a measurement of the totals.

The area comparison

United States is 1.24 times the area of Australia on these measurements, a difference of 1,836,773 km².

Calculation: 9,525,060 ÷ 7,688,287 = 1.2389, rounded to 1.24. This is an area ratio, not a claim that one country’s shape physically fits inside the other.

Does this include Alaska?

Yes. The US figure includes all 50 states and the District of Columbia. A comparison with only the contiguous 48 states answers a different question. Australia includes Tasmania and the islands in Geoscience Australia’s states-and-territories table, not an Antarctic claim.

Sources and boundaries

Guide updated October 30, 2026. These are geographic area comparisons, not distances across the countries. Geoscience Australia measures a mainland-and-islands footprint; the US figure is reconstructed from Census land and inland-water categories. Both exclude marine waters, but they are separate surveys, not one harmonized dataset.

The game’s fixed US reference is 9,525,067 km², 7 km² above the sum of the rounded Census components used here. These guides show their own reproducible source calculations without changing saved game rounds.

Why does the game show a different Australian area?

The game keeps a fixed reference value of 7,692,024 km². This guide uses Geoscience Australia’s published 7,688,287 km² measurement and names its source. Different coastline datasets and measurement conventions can change an area figure; they do not change which of these two countries is larger.