List of countries by length of coastline

This article contains a list of countries by length of coastline, in kilometers. Though the coastline paradox stipulates that coastlines do not have a well-defined length, there are various methods in use to measure coastlines through ratios and other metrics. A coastline of zero indicates that the country is landlocked.

Overview

An example of the coastline paradox. If measured using an interval of 125 mi (200 km), the coast of Great Britain has a length of about 1,500 mi (2,400 km). Using an interval of 30 mi (50 km), the length is about 2,100 mi (3,400 km).

The coastline paradox states that a coastline does not have a well-defined length. Measurements of the length of a coastline behave like a fractal, being different at different scale intervals (distance between points on the coastline at which measurements are taken). The smaller the scale interval (meaning the more detailed the measurement), the longer the coastline will be.^{[Note 1]} This "magnifying" effect is greater for convoluted coastlines than for relatively smooth ones.

Data marked The World Factbook or TWF covers 198 countries and 55 territories, from the book published by the Central Intelligence Agency. In addition to coastline lengths, this is the source of the land area used to calculate the "coast/area ratio" for both TWF and WRI (see below) coastline measurement. This ratio measures how many metres of coastline correspond to every square kilometer of land area. The ratio illustrates the ease of accessibility to the country's coast from every point in its interior. Therefore, an island country like Maldives, or a country carved by the sea like Greece, is more likely to have a high ratio, while a landlocked country will have a ratio of zero. Note that the scales at which The World Factbook figures were measured are not stated, nor is it known whether the figures are all reported using the same scale, thus the figures are not necessarily comparable across different countries.
Data marked World Resources Institute or WRI covers 182 independent countries and 13 dependencies, based on data calculated in 2000 from the World Vector Shoreline, United States Defense Mapping Agency, 1989. It may include territories whose status have changed. According to their technical notes, the "coastline length was derived from the World Vector Shoreline database at 1:250,000 scale. The estimates (...) were calculated using a Geographic Information System (GIS) and an underlying database consistent for the entire world. The methodology used to estimate length is based on the following: 1) A country's coastline is made up of individual lines, and an individual line has two or more vertices and/or nodes. 2) The length between two vertices is calculated on the surface of a sphere. 3) The sum of the lengths of the pairs of vertices is aggregated for each individual line, and 4) the sum of the lengths of individual lines was aggregated for a country. In general, the coastline length of islands that are part of a country, but are not overseas territories, are included in the coastline estimate for that country (e.g., Canary Islands are included in Spain). Coastline length for overseas territories and dependencies are listed separately. Disputed areas are not included in country or regional totals."^[1]

List

Country	The World Factbook^[2]		World Resources Institute^[1]		Land area km² (TWF)^[3]	Coast/area ratio (m/km²)		Coast/area^0.5 ratio
Country	Rank	km	Rank	km	Land area km² (TWF)^[3]	(TWF)	(WRI)	(TWF)
World^{[Note 2]}	—	356,000	—	1,634,701	148,940,000	2.39	11.0	29.2
Canada	1	202,080	1	265,523	9,093,507	22.2	29.2	67
Norway	2	83,281^{[Note 3]}	7	53,199	304,282	274	175	151
Indonesia	3	54,716	4	95,181	1,811,569	30.2	52.5	40.7
Greenland^{[Note 4]}	—	44,087			2,166,086	20.4		30
Russia	4	37,653^{[Note 5]}	3	110,310	16,377,742	2.30	6.74	9.3
Philippines	5	36,289	8	33,900	298,170	122	114	66.5
Japan	6	29,751	12	29,020	364,485	81.6	79.6	49.3
Australia	7	25,760	6	66,530	7,682,300	3.35	8.66	9.29
United States	8	19,924	2	133,312	9,147,593	2.18	14.6	6.59
Antarctica	—	17,968			14,200,000	1.27		4.77
New Zealand	9	15,134	17	17,209	264,537	57.2	65.1	29.4
China	10	14,500	11	30,017	9,326,410	1.55	3.22	4.75
Greece	11	13,676^{[Note 3]}	19	15,147	130,647	105	116	37.8
United Kingdom	12	12,429	16	19,717	241,930	51.4	81.5	25.3
Mexico	13	9,330	14	23,761	1,943,945	4.80	12.2	6.69
Italy	14	7,600	28	9,226	294,140	25.8	31.4	14
Brazil	15	7,491	9	33,379	8,358,140	0.896	3.99	2.59
Denmark	16	7,314	44	5,316	42,434	172	126	35.5
Turkey	17	7,200	31	8,140	769,632	9.36	10.6	8.21
India	18	7,000	18	17,181	2,973,193	2.35	5.78	4.06
Chile	19	6,435	5	78,563	743,812	8.65	106	7.46
Micronesia, Federated States of	20	6,112	92	1,295	702	8,710	1,840	231
Croatia	21	5,835^{[Note 3]}	42	5,664	55,974	112	101	24.7
Solomon Islands	22	5,313	26	9,880	27,986	190	353	31.8
Papua New Guinea	23	5,152	15	20,197	452,860	11.4	44.6	7.66
Argentina	24	4,989	30	8,397	2,736,690	1.82	3.07	3.02
Iceland	25	4,970	29	8,506	100,250	49.6	84.8	15.7
Spain^{[Note 6]}	26	4,964	34	7,268	498,980	9.95	14.6	7.03
France	27	4,853	33	7,330	640,427	7.58	11.4	6.06
Madagascar	28	4,828	25	9,935	581,540	8.30	17.1	6.33
Malaysia	29	4,675	27	9,323	328,657	14.2	28.4	8.15
Estonia	30	3,794	61	2,956	42,388	89.5	69.7	18.4
Cuba	31	3,735	21	14,519	109,820	34.0	132	11.3
Svalbard	—	3,587			62,045	57.8		14.4
Bahamas, The	32	3,542	24	11,238	10,010	354	1,120	35.4
Vietnam	33	3,444^{[Note 7]}	23	11,409	310,070	11.1	36.8	6.18
Somalia	34	3,333	50	3,898	627,337	4.82	6.21	4.21
Thailand	35	3,219	35	7,066	510,890	6.30	13.8	4.5
Sweden	36	3,218	13	26,384	410,335	7.84	64.3	5.02
Colombia	37	3,208	41	5,875	1,038,700	3.09	5.66	3.15
Coral Sea Islands	—	3,095			<3	>1,000,000
French Southern and Antarctic Lands	—	2,948.4^{[Note 8]}			7,667.6	385		33.7
Morocco	38	2,945	73	2,009	716,550	2.56	2.80	3.48
Venezuela	39	2,800	37	6,762	882,050	3.17	7.67	2.98
South Africa	40	2,798	51	3,751	1,214,470	2.30	3.09	2.54
Ukraine	41	2,782	45	4,953	579,330	4.80	8.55	3.66
Saudi Arabia	42	2,640	32	7,572	2,149,690	1.23	3.52	1.8
Vanuatu	43	2,528	59	3,132	12,189	207	257	22.9
French Polynesia	—	2,525	—	5,830	3,827	660	1,520	40.8
Korea, North	44	2,495	49	4,009	120,408	20.7	33.3	7.19
Panama	45	2,490	43	5,637	74,340	33.5	75.8	9.13
Mozambique	46	2,470	36	6,942	786,380	3.14	8.83	2.79
Egypt	47	2,450	39	5,898	995,450	2.46	5.92	2.46
Iran	48	2,440^{[Note 9]}^{[Note 3]}	40	5,891	1,531,595	1.59	3.85	1.97
Peru	49	2,414	55	3,362	1,279,996	1.89	2.63	2.13
Korea, South	50	2,413	22	12,478	96,920	24.9	129	7.75
Germany	51	2,389	52	3,624	348,672	6.85	10.4	4.05
New Caledonia	—	2,254	—	3,624	18,275	123	198	16.7
Ecuador	52	2,237	47	4,597	276,841	8.08	16.6	4.25
Eritrea	53	2,234^{[Note 3]}	54	3,446	101,000	22.1	34.1	7.03
Oman	54	2,092	65	2,810	309,500	6.76	9.08	3.76
Myanmar	55	1,930	20	14,708	653,508	2.95	22.5	2.39
Yemen	56	1,906	58	3,149	527,968	3.61	5.96	2.62
Portugal	57	1,793	63	2,830	91,470	19.6	30.9	5.93
Haiti	58	1,771	77	1,977	27,560	64.3	71.7	10.7
Libya	59	1,770	71	2,025	1,759,540	1.01	1.15	1.33
Angola	60	1,600	67	2,252	1,246,700	1.28	1.81	1.43
Namibia	61	1,572	84	1,754	823,290	1.91	2.13	1.73
Republic of China (Taiwan)	62	1,566.3	74	2,007	32,260	48.6	62.2	8.72
Palau	63	1,519			459	3,310		70.9
Northern Mariana Islands	—	1,482			464	3,190		68.8
Ireland	64	1,448	38	6,437	68,883	21.0	93.4	5.52
Tanzania	65	1,424	53	3,461	885,800	1.61	3.91	1.51
Sri Lanka	66	1,340	64	2,825	64,630	20.7	43.7	5.27
United Arab Emirates	67	1,318	62	2,871	83,600	15.8	34.3	4.56
Costa Rica	68	1,290	70	2,069	51,060	25.3	40.5	5.71
Dominican Republic	69	1,288	88	1,612	48,320	26.7	33.4	5.86
Falkland Islands	—	1,288			12,173	106		11.7
Finland	70	1,250	10	31,119	303,815	4.11	102	2.27
Tunisia	71	1,148	79	1,927	155,360	7.39	12.4	2.91
Kiribati	72	1,143	78	1,961	811	1,410	2,420	40.1
Fiji	73	1,129	46	4,638	18,274	61.8	254	8.35
Faroe Islands	—	1,117			1,393	802		29.9
Pakistan	74	1,046	66	2,599	770,875	1.36	3.37	1.19
Jamaica	75	1,022	102	895	10,831	94.4	82.6	9.82
Algeria	76	998	90	1,557	2,381,740	0.419	0.654	0.647
Cape Verde	77	965	97	1,121	4,033	239	278	15.2
Spratly Islands	—	926			<5	>200,000
Nicaragua	78	910	80	1,915	119,990	7.58	16.0	2.63
Gabon	79	885	72	2,019	257,667	3.43	7.84	1.74
Nigeria	80	853	60	3,122	910,768	0.937	3.43	0.894
Sudan	80	853	68	2,245	1,731,671	0.493	1.30	0.648
Honduras	82	832^{[Note 10]}	82	1,878	111,890	7.44	16.8	2.49
Mauritania	83	754	94	1,268	1,030,700	0.732	1.23	0.743
Hong Kong	—	733	—	955	1,073	683	890	22.4
Timor-Leste	84	706			14,874	47.5		5.79
British Indian Ocean Territory	—	698			60	11,600		90.1
Uruguay	85	660	98	1,096	175,015	3.77	6.26	1.58
Cyprus	86	648	112	671	9,241	70.1	72.6	6.74
Maldives	87	644	75	2,002	298	2,160	6,720	37.3
Bangladesh	88	580	56	3,306	130,170	4.46	25.4	1.61
Liberia	89	579	104	842	96,320	6.01	8.74	1.87
Qatar	90	563	100	909	11,586	48.6	78.5	5.23
Ghana	91	539	106	758	227,533	2.37	3.33	1.13
Kenya	92	536	89	1,586	569,140	0.942	2.79	0.71
Senegal	93	531	91	1,327	192,530	2.76	6.89	1.21
Paracel Islands	—	518			7.75	66,800		186
Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast)	94	515	105	797	318,003	1.62	2.51	0.913
Puerto Rico	—	501	—	1,094	8,959	55.9	122	5.29
Kuwait	95	499	107	756	17,818	28.0	42.4	3.74
Latvia	96	498	116	566	62,249	8.00	9.09	2
Seychelles	97	491	109	747	455	1,080	1,640	23
Guyana	98	459	95	1,154	196,849	2.33	5.86	1.03
Netherlands	99	451^{[Note 11]}	81	1,914	33,893	13.3	56.5	2.45
Cambodia	100	443	96	1,127	176,515	2.51	6.38	1.05
Poland	101	440	99	1,032	304,255	1.45	3.39	0.798
Tonga	102	419	101	909	717	584	1,270	15.6
Samoa	103	403	120	463	2,821	143	164	7.59
Cameroon	104	402	83	1,799	472,710	0.850	3.81	0.585
Sierra Leone	104	402	86	1,677	71,620	5.61	23.4	1.5
Guatemala	106	400	122	445	107,159	3.73	4.15	1.22
Turks and Caicos Islands	—	389			948	410		12.6
Belize	107	386	76	1,996	22,806	16.9	87.5	2.56
Suriname	107	386	114	620	156,000	2.47	3.97	0.977
Marshall Islands	109	370.4	69	2,106	181	2,050	11,600	27.5
Curaçao	—	364			444	820		17.3
Albania	110	362	113	649	27,398	13.2	23.7	2.19
Trinidad and Tobago	110	362	110	704	5,128	70.6	137	5.06
Bulgaria	112	354	121	457	108,489	3.26	4.21	1.07
Guinea-Bissau	113	350	57	3,176	28,120	12.4	113	2.09
Comoros	114	340	119	469	2,235	152	210	7.19
Guinea	115	320	87	1,615	245,717	1.30	6.57	0.646
Djibouti	116	314	123	443	23,180	13.5	19.1	2.06
Georgia	117	310	124	376	69,700	4.45	5.39	1.17
El Salvador	118	307	108	756	20,721	14.8	36.5	2.13
Equatorial Guinea	119	296	115	603	28,051	10.6	21.5	1.77
Montenegro	120	293.5			13,452	21.82		2.53
Israel	121	273^{[Note 12]}	136	205	21,497	12.7	9.54	1.86
Malta	122	252.8	137	198	316	800	627	14.2
Lebanon	123	225	125	294	10,230	22.0	28.7	2.22
Romania	123	225	111	696	229,891	0.979	3.03	0.469
São Tomé and Príncipe	125	209	128	269	964	217	279	6.73
Singapore	126	193	129	268	709.2	272	378	7.25
Syria	126	193	134	212	185,887	1.04	1.14	0.448
U.S. Virgin Islands	—	188	—	390	346	543	1,130	10.1
Mauritius	128	177	118	496	2,030	87.2	244	3.93
Congo, Republic of the	129	169	135	205	341,500	0.495	0.600	0.289
Bahrain	130	161	132	255	760	212	336	5.84
Brunei	130	161	127	269	5,265	30.6	51.1	2.22
Cayman Islands	—	160			264	606		9.85
Isle of Man	—	160			572	280		6.69
Saint Lucia	132	158	139	166	606	261	274	6.42
Antigua and Barbuda	133	153	126	289	442.6	346	653	7.27
Dominica	134	148	141	152	751	197	202	5.4
Christmas Island	—	138.9			135	1,030		12
Saint Kitts and Nevis	135	135			261	517		8.36
Wallis and Futuna	—	129			142	908		10.8
Guam	—	125.5			544	231		5.38
Jan Mayen	—	124.1			377	329		6.39
Benin	136	121	140	153	110,622	1.09	1.38	0.364
Grenada	136	121	133	252	344	352	733	6.52
Cook Islands	138	120			236	508		7.81
Saint Pierre and Miquelon	—	120			242	496		7.71
American Samoa	—	116			224	518		7.75
Bermuda	—	103	—	180	54	1,910	3,330	14
Heard Island and McDonald Islands	—	101.9			412	247		5.02
Tokelau	—	101			12	8,420		29.2
Barbados	139	97	143	97	430	226	226	4.68
Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha	—	94^{[Note 13]}			394	239		4.74
Lithuania	140	90	131	258	62,680	1.44	4.12	0.359
United States Pacific Island Wildlife Refuges^{[Note 14]}	—	85.7			22.41	3,820		18.1
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	141	84	130	264	389	216	679	4.26
Akrotiri and Dhekelia	—	83.8			253.8^[4]	330		5.26
British Virgin Islands	—	80			151	530		6.51
Gambia	142	80	117	503	10,120	7.91	49.7	0.795
Ashmore and Cartier Islands	—	74.1			5	14,800		33.1
Jersey	—	70			116	603		6.5
Aruba	—	68.5	—	107	180	381	594	5.11
Belgium	143	66.5	144	76	30,278	2.20	2.51	0.382
Niue	144	64			260	246		3.97
Anguilla	—	61			91	670		6.39
Saint Martin	—	58.9^{[Note 15]}			54.4	1,080		7.99
Iraq	145	58	142	105	437,367	0.133	0.240	0.0877
Togo	146	56	145	53	54,385	1.03	0.975	0.24
Pitcairn Islands	—	51			47	1,090		7.44
Guernsey	—	50			78	641		5.66
Slovenia	147	46.6	146	41	20,151	2.31	2.03	0.328
Macau	—	41	—	36	28.2	1,450	1,280	7.72
Gaza Strip (Palestine)	148	40			360	111		2.11
Montserrat	—	40			102	392		3.96
Congo, Democratic Republic of the	149	37	138	177	2,267,048	0.0163	0.0781	0.0246
Norfolk Island	—	32			36	889		5.33
Nauru	150	30			21	1,430		6.55
Bouvet Island	—	29.6			49	604		4.23
Cocos (Keeling) Islands	—	26			14	1,860		6.95
Jordan	151	26^{[Note 16]}	147	27	88,802	0.293	0.304	0.0872
Tuvalu	152	24			26	923		4.71
Bosnia and Herzegovina	153	20	148	23	51,187	0.391	0.449	0.0884
Wake Island	—	19.3			6.5	2,970		7.57
Gibraltar	—	12			6.5	1,850		4.71
Clipperton Island	—	11.1			6	1,850		4.53
Navassa Island	—	8			5.4	1,480		3.44
Monaco	154	4.1			2	2,050		2.9
Saint Barthélemy	—	NA			25
Sint Maarten	—	NA^{[Note 17]}			34	0.0147
South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands	—	NA			3,903	0.000128
Kazakhstan	155	0^{[Note 18]}	48	4,528	2,699,700	0	1.68
Turkmenistan	155	0^{[Note 19]}	93	1,289	469,930	0	2.74
Azerbaijan	155	0^{[Note 20]}	103	871	82,629	0	10.5
West Bank (Palestine)	155	0^{[Note 21]}			5,640	0
Afghanistan	155	0	149	0	652,230	0	0
Andorra	155	0			468	0
Armenia	155	0	149	0	28,203	0	0
Austria	155	0	149	0	82,445	0	0
Belarus	155	0	149	0	202,900	0	0
Bhutan	155	0	149	0	38,394	0	0
Bolivia	155	0	149	0	1,083,301	0	0
Botswana	155	0	149	0	566,730	0	0
Burkina Faso	155	0	149	0	273,800	0	0
Burundi	155	0	149	0	25,680	0	0
Central African Republic	155	0	149	0	622,984	0	0
Chad	155	0	149	0	1,259,200	0	0
Czech Republic	155	0	149	0	77,247	0	0
Ethiopia	155	0	149	0	1,096,570	0	0
Hungary	155	0	149	0	89,608	0	0
Kosovo	155	0			10,887	0
Kyrgyzstan	155	0	149	0	191,801	0	0
Laos	155	0	149	0	230,800	0	0
Lesotho	155	0	149	0	30,355	0	0
Liechtenstein	155	0			160	0
Luxembourg	155	0	149	0	2,586	0	0
Malawi	155	0	149	0	94,080	0	0
Mali	155	0	149	0	1,220,190	0	0
Moldova	155	0	149	0	32,891	0	0
Mongolia	155	0	149	0	1,553,556	0	0
Nepal	155	0	149	0	143,351	0	0
Niger	155	0	149	0	1,266,700	0	0
North Macedonia	155	0	149	0	25,433	0	0
Paraguay	155	0	149	0	397,302	0	0
Rwanda	155	0	149	0	24,668	0	0
San Marino	155	0			61	0
Serbia	155	0			77,474	0
Slovakia	155	0	149	0	48,105	0	0
South Sudan	155	0			644,329^[4]	0
Swaziland	155	0	149	0	17,204	0	0
Switzerland	155	0	149	0	39,997	0	0
Tajikistan	155	0	149	0	141,510	0	0
Uganda	155	0	149	0	197,100	0	0
Uzbekistan	155	0	85	1,707	425,400	0	4.01
Vatican City	155	0			0.44	0
Zambia	155	0	149	0	743,398	0	0
Zimbabwe	155	0	149	0	386,847	0	0
French Guiana			—	763
Guadeloupe			—	581
Martinique			—	369
Caribbean Netherlands			—	361
Réunion			—	219

Notes

↑ The smaller the scale interval mathematically, the more detailed and the "greater the scale of the map", in common usage. See scale (map).
↑ World total includes countries not listed and coastline for disputed areas.
1 2 3 4 5 Includes coastline of outlying islands.
↑ Greenland is an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark.
↑ Russia has an additional 850 km of coastline along the Caspian Sea, which is landlocked.
↑ Includes coastline length for the Canary Islands.
↑ Excludes minor outlying islands.
↑ Does not include Saint Paul Island and the Crozet Islands (data unavailable) or the Adelie Land claim to Antarctica.
↑ Iran has an additional 740 km of coastline along the Caspian Sea, which is landlocked.
↑ Includes coastline in the Gulf of Fonseca (163 km).
↑ In 1900, the Dutch coastline measured approximately 1400 km. It has significantly been reduced by the closing of the Zuiderzee by the Afsluitdijk in 1932 (250 km) and the closing of several sea arms by the Delta Works (700 km).
↑ Israel has an additional coastline along the Dead Sea and the Sea of Galilee (both landlocked), with a total length of 63 km.
↑ Excluding Ascension Island (data unavailable).
↑ Includes Baker Island, Howland Island, Jarvis Island, Johnston Atoll, Kingman Reef, Midway Atoll, and Palmyra Atoll.
↑ Figure represents the coastline of the entire island, including Sint Maarten (administered by the Netherlands).
↑ Jordan has an additional 50 km of coastline along the Dead Sea, which is landlocked.
↑ Coastline included in figure for Saint Martin (administered by France).
↑ Kazakhstan has a coastline with the Caspian Sea, which is landlocked, with a total length of 1,894 km.
↑ Turkmenistan has a coastline with the Caspian Sea, which is landlocked, with a total length of 1,768 km.
↑ Azerbaijan has a 713-km coastline along the Caspian Sea, which is landlocked.
↑ The West Bank has a 40-km coastline along the Dead Sea, which is landlocked.

References

1 2 "Coastal and Marine Ecosystems — Marine Jurisdictions: Coastline length". World Resources Institute. Archived from the original on 2012-04-19. Retrieved 2012-03-18.
↑ "Coastline - The World Factbook". www.cia.gov.
↑ "Field Listing :: Area — The World Factbook - Central Intelligence Agency". October 22, 2020. Archived from the original on 2020-10-22.
1 2 Figure represents total area rather than land area.

Overview

List

See also

Notes

References

Further reading