How much of Earth's surface is covered by each country – in one graphic

Jan 28, 2021

70% of the Earth's surface is water. Image: Pixabay/PIRO4D

Nicholas LePan

Mining Editor, Visual Capitlaist

Our Impact

The Big Picture

Explore and monitor how Ocean is affecting economies, industries and global issues

A hand holding a looking glass by a lake

Crowdsource Innovation

Get involved with our crowdsourced digital platform to deliver impact at scale

Stay up to date:

Ocean

A chart to show the components of the earth's surface

Less than 30% of the 510 million square kilometers of area on the Earth's surface is covered by land. Image: Visual Capitalist

Have you read?

A table to show the size of different countries in kilometers squared and what percentage of the Earth's surface they occupy

The size of countries and location of their borders is determined by politics, economics, history, and geography. Image: Visual Capitalist

Don't miss any update on this topic

Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

The Agenda Weekly

A weekly update of the most important issues driving the global agenda

Subscribe today

You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in our emails. For more details, review our privacy policy.

More on Ocean
See all

Why the tropical majority is key to creating effective ocean solutions at COP28, and beyond

Josheena Naggea, Alfredo Giron and Ana Spalding

November 29, 2023

How are rising sea temperatures affecting coral reefs in Indonesia?

Robby Irfany Maqoma

November 28, 2023

1:37

Dominica pioneers world's first sperm whale reserve

How COP28 can help accelerate research around the ocean's carbon removal potential

Sam Zak and Brad Ack

November 17, 2023

Global warming is shaking up the ocean, literally

Richard Aster

November 15, 2023

The world has lost 14% of its coral reefs since 2009. Investing in a blue economy gives us a shot at saving the rest

Francis Staub and Yabanex Batista

November 9, 2023

How much of Earth's surface is covered by each country – in one graphic

Nicholas LePan

Share:

Explore and monitor how Ocean is affecting economies, industries and global issues

Get involved with our crowdsourced digital platform to deliver impact at scale

Stay up to date:

Ocean

Have you read?

Satellites reveal a new view of Earth’s water from space

How did water get to Earth? Scientists still aren't sure

Don't miss any update on this topic

Related topics:

Share:

The Agenda Weekly

More on Ocean
See all

Share:

.chakra .wef-1nk5u5d{margin-top:16px;margin-bottom:16px;line-height:1.388;color:#2846F8;font-size:1.25rem;}@media screen and (min-width:56.5rem){.chakra .wef-1nk5u5d{font-size:1.125rem;}}Get involved with our crowdsourced digital platform to deliver impact at scale

Stay up to date:

Ocean

Have you read?

Satellites reveal a new view of Earth’s water from space

How did water get to Earth? Scientists still aren't sure

Don't miss any update on this topic

Related topics:

Share:

The Agenda .chakra .wef-n7bacu{margin-top:16px;margin-bottom:16px;line-height:1.388;font-weight:400;}Weekly

Get involved with our crowdsourced digital platform to deliver impact at scale

The Agenda Weekly