United States vs China: Size Comparison

The United States covers 3,531,837 square miles of land; China covers 3,624,807 square miles — a ratio of about 1.0, making them essentially the same size. China is only about 2.6 percent larger, a difference of roughly 93,000 square miles, or about the area of Oregon. The two countries are the third- and fourth-largest on Earth by land area (after Russia and Canada), and their near-identical footprints make them natural rivals for comparison. Both span deserts, fertile plains, and mountain ranges; both stretch across multiple time zones and climate bands. The symmetry breaks on people: China holds over 1.4 billion residents to America's 340 million. On a map they are twins; in density they are opposites. It is one of geography's neatest coincidences that the world's two great Pacific powers occupy almost exactly the same amount of land.

United States vs China by the numbers

In other words, you could fit China inside United States about 1.0 times. Area figures are land area (square miles). Sources: World Bank, indicator AG.LND.TOTL.K2, 2024 (land area)