Australia is both a country and a continent, and it is very large in land area. It ranks among the biggest countries on Earth.
Basic size
Australia’s total area is about 7.69 million square kilometres, or roughly 2.97 million square miles, making it the sixth-largest country in the world and the largest in Oceania. It accounts for about five percent of the world’s land area.
Distances across Australia
From east to west, Australia is roughly 4,000 kilometres across, and from north to south it is a little over 3,000 kilometres. In practical terms, this makes it comparable in span to the contiguous United States.
Comparison with other countries
Australia is similar in land size to the contiguous United States, though the whole United States (including Alaska and Hawaii) is larger overall. It is smaller than Russia, Canada, China, and the USA, but larger than almost every other country, which is why it is classed as the sixth-largest in the world.