Provinces and regions of China, matched to countries
Natural Earth’s file divides China into 31 provinces and regions. Below, each is drawn at true scale and matched to the country closest to it in area and in population.
Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan are drawn as separate entries in Natural Earth’s country file, and Size Versus follows it: they are not counted among the 31 here, and each has its own page (Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan). The political status of Taiwan is contested; Size Versus takes no position on it.
Part of the boundary of Xinjiang and Tibet is disputed. Size Versus draws Natural Earth’s de facto outline, the boundary as it is held on the ground, and takes no position on it.
Population: the 2020 figures Wikidata holds, for 31 of the 31 provinces and regions. Every population on these pages carries its year; they are not one count taken on one day.
At a glance
- Xinjiang, the largest, is 242× the size of Shanghai, the smallest.
- The five largest, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Tibet, Qinghai, Sichuan, cover 54% of China.
- 8 of the 31 are larger than the United Kingdom (244,000 km²).
- 4 of the 31 are larger than France (548,000 km²).
- Shanghai, the most crowded, has 3,687 people per km²: 1,142× Tibet, the least crowded (3.2).
- Half of the people counted live in the 9 most populous (Guangdong, Shandong, Henan, Jiangsu and 5 more), which cover 18% of the area.
- 29 of the 31 have more people than the median of the 38 European countries listed here (6.6 million).
- 11 would rank among the 30 most populous countries if counted as one: Guangdong (12th), Henan (16th), Shandong (16th), Sichuan (19th), Jiangsu (19th), Hebei (20th) and others.
- 16 of the 31 are within 10% in area of a European country, among them Guangxi and Romania (1.00×), Ningxia and Bosnia and Herzegovina (1.01×), Shaanxi and Belarus (1.01×).
Every province-level division matched to a country
Largest first. The matches are the countries closest in area and in population from Natural Earth’s country list; contested places and dependencies are never used as matches. Population is the newest figure Wikidata holds, with its year.
- Xinjiang1,630,000 km² · 25.9 million (2020)Size ofLibya1.00× · 1,624,000 km²People ofNorth Korea0.98× · 26.4 million
- Inner Mongolia1,144,000 km² · 24.0 million (2020)Size ofColombia1.01× · 1,135,000 km²People ofSyria1.01× · 23.9 million
- Tibet1,130,000 km² · 3.6 million (2020)Size ofEthiopia1.00× · 1,127,000 km²People ofEritrea1.04× · 3.5 million
- Qinghai714,000 km² · 5.9 million (2020)Size ofChile0.97× · 736,000 km²People ofDenmark1.02× · 5.8 million
- Sichuan485,000 km² · 83.7 million (2020)Size ofSomalia1.03× · 472,000 km²People ofGermany1.00× · 83.5 million
- Heilongjiang452,000 km² · 31.9 million (2020)Size ofYemen1.00× · 453,000 km²People ofMadagascar1.00× · 32.0 million
- Gansu406,000 km² · 25.0 million (2020)Size ofParaguay1.01× · 400,000 km²People ofSyria1.05× · 23.9 million
- Yunnan385,000 km² · 47.2 million (2020)Size ofNorway1.01× · 382,000 km²People ofUganda1.00× · 47.1 million
- Guangxi237,000 km² · 50.1 million (2020)Size ofRomania1.00× · 236,000 km²People ofSouth Korea0.97× · 51.5 million
- Hunan211,000 km² · 66.4 million (2020)Size ofGuyana1.00× · 211,000 km²People ofThailand1.00× · 66.2 million
- Shaanxi206,000 km² · 39.5 million (2020)Size ofBelarus0.99× · 207,000 km²People ofSudan0.98× · 40.5 million
- Jilin191,000 km² · 24.1 million (2020)Size ofSenegal0.97× · 196,000 km²People ofSyria1.01× · 23.9 million
- Hebei189,000 km² · 74.6 million (2020)Size ofSyria1.02× · 186,000 km²People ofFrance1.09× · 68.6 million
- Hubei186,000 km² · 57.8 million (2020)Size ofSyria1.00× · 186,000 km²People ofTanzania1.01× · 57.3 million
- Guangdong175,000 km² · 126.0 million (2020)Size ofUruguay0.99× · 177,000 km²People ofJapan1.02× · 123.8 million
- Guizhou175,000 km² · 38.6 million (2020)Size ofUruguay0.99× · 177,000 km²People ofIraq1.01× · 38.3 million
- Jiangxi168,000 km² · 45.2 million (2020)Size ofUruguay0.95× · 177,000 km²People ofAlgeria0.98× · 46.2 million
- Henan166,000 km² · 99.4 million (2020)Size ofTunisia1.06× · 157,000 km²People ofVietnam1.03× · 96.2 million
- Shanxi156,000 km² · 34.9 million (2020)Size ofTunisia1.00× · 157,000 km²People ofUzbekistan1.00× · 34.9 million
- Shandong156,000 km² · 101.5 million (2020)Size ofTunisia1.00× · 157,000 km²People ofDemocratic Republic of the Congo0.96× · 105.8 million
- Liaoning147,000 km² · 42.6 million (2020)Size ofNepal1.00× · 147,000 km²People ofAfghanistan1.03× · 41.5 million
- Anhui140,000 km² · 61.0 million (2020)Size ofTajikistan0.99× · 142,000 km²People ofSouth Africa0.98× · 62.0 million
- Fujian121,000 km² · 41.5 million (2020)Size ofMalawi1.01× · 119,000 km²People ofAfghanistan1.00× · 41.5 million
- Zhejiang101,000 km² · 64.6 million (2020)Size ofIceland0.99× · 102,000 km²People ofThailand0.98× · 66.2 million
- Jiangsu100,000 km² · 84.7 million (2020)Size ofSouth Korea1.02× · 98,500 km²People ofTurkey0.99× · 85.4 million
- Chongqing82,400 km² · 32.1 million (2020)Size ofAustria0.98× · 84,000 km²People ofMadagascar1.00× · 32.0 million
- Ningxia52,100 km² · 7.2 million (2020)Size ofBosnia and Herzegovina1.01× · 51,800 km²People ofKyrgyzstan0.99× · 7.3 million
- Hainan33,800 km² · 10.1 million (2020)Size ofMoldova1.02× · 33,200 km²People ofAzerbaijan0.99× · 10.2 million
- Beijing16,300 km² · 21.9 million (2020)Size ofEswatini0.95× · 17,100 km²People ofNiger1.02× · 21.5 million
- Tianjin11,500 km² · 13.9 million (2020)Size ofQatar1.03× · 11,200 km²People ofBurundi1.01× · 13.7 million
- Shanghai6,750 km² · 24.9 million (2020)Size ofBrunei1.18× · 5,720 km²People ofSyria1.04× · 23.9 million
The closest matches in size
How crowded they are
ShanghaiTibet
Beside the regions of other countries
Every province-level division also has a closest match, by area and by people, among the 364 regions of the other 12 countries. All the matches, in both directions, are on one page.
Sources and method
- Outlines
- Natural Earth, 1:10m Admin 1 - States, Provinces, public domain. The 31 listed are all of the features Natural Earth has for China, except Paracel Islands.
- Boundary
- De facto, as drawn by Natural Earth.
- Area
- Measured on the WGS84 ellipsoid from the full-detail outlines, shown rounded. The 31 areas add up to 9,375,000 km², within 0.1% of the country’s measured area.
- Official figures
- Area, population and capital from Wikidata (CC0), fetched 2026-11-12. Population is the 2020 figure where Wikidata has it, otherwise its newest; the year is shown.
- Data built
- 2026-11-12