Iceland (island) is 1.03× the size of South Korea

Iceland (island) (island) covers about 102,000 km² (39,300 mi²) and South Korea (country) about 98,500 km² (38,000 mi²). Below, both outlines are drawn at one scale and centred on each other. The Iceland (island) outline is Natural Earth’s, checked against the published area.

102,000km²Iceland (island)
98,500km²South Korea

100 km

Iceland (island)
South Korea

What fits

South Korea is 97% of the size of Iceland (island).
Iceland (island) is larger by 3,280 km² (1,270 mi²), which is 3.3% of the area of South Korea.
Measured in Belgiums: Iceland (island) is about 3.32, South Korea about 3.21.

How they differ

Their centres are about 8,370 km apart.
A standard web map misstates the comparison: Iceland (island) at 65°N is drawn about 5.6× too large and South Korea at 36°N about 1.5×, so the map shows Iceland (island) as 3.75× the size of South Korea instead of 1.03×.
Together Iceland (island) and South Korea cover 200,000 km², close to the size of Kyrgyzstan (199,000 km², 0.7% smaller).
The gap between them, 3,280 km², is about the size of Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (3,320 km²).
Iceland (island)'s centre is 28.6° of latitude, about 3,180 km, farther north than South Korea's.
Iceland (island) is an island and ranks 17th of the 81 islands on sizeversus by area.
South Korea ranks 108th of 212 countries by area.
Laid out flat, Iceland (island) stretches about 349 km north to south and 506 km east to west; South Korea about 602 km by 554 km.
Wikidata’s published figure of 103,000 km² agrees with our measured 102,000 km², to within 2%.

Who wins on what

Measure	Winner	By
Larger area	Iceland (island)	1.03×
Farther north	Iceland (island)	28.6° of latitude
Stretched more on a web map	Iceland (island)	5.6× against 1.5×

Both against the same yardsticks

Yardstick	Iceland (island)	South Korea
Belgium 30,700 km²	3.32×	3.21×
United Kingdom 244,000 km²	0.42×	0.40×
Germany 358,000 km²	0.28×	0.28×
Japan 374,000 km²	0.27×	0.26×
France 548,000 km²	0.19×	0.18×
India 3,151,000 km²	0.03×	0.03×
Brazil 8,473,000 km²	0.01×	0.01×
United States 9,447,000 km²	0.01×	0.01×
Russia 16,980,000 km²	0.01×	0.01×

Each figure is the place's area divided by the yardstick's.

Side by side

	Iceland (island)	South Korea
Is a	Islandisland on sizeversus	CountryAsia
Area, measured	102,000 km²39,300 mi²	98,500 km²38,000 mi²
Area, published	103,000 km²Wikidata	100,000 km²Wikidata
Rank by area	17th of 81islands	108th of 212countries
Latitude range	63°N to 67°N	33°N to 39°N
On the shore	1 on the shore	–

Published figures: Wikidata (CC0). A lake or a sea has no legal boundary: the measured area is that of Natural Earth’s outline, and it is shown beside the published one.

Natural Earth’s outlines of Iceland contain or lie within 4 km of the outline of Iceland (island). That is what its geometry says, and it is not a statement about who owns the water or where any border runs in it.

Similar in size to Iceland (island)

Similar in size to South Korea

More comparisons

Sources and method

Outlines: Lakes and seas: Natural Earth 1:10m physical vectors (public domain), kept only where the measured area is within 10% of the published one. Countries and regions: Natural Earth, 1:10m Admin 0 and Admin 1, public domain.
Boundary: De facto, as drawn by Natural Earth. A lake or a sea has no legal boundary of its own; the outline is a cartographic one.
Area: Measured on the WGS84 ellipsoid from the full-detail outlines, shown rounded. The published figure comes from Wikidata (CC0), fetched 2026-11-11, and is shown beside the measured one.
Drawing: Each outline is projected with an equal-area projection centred on its own centroid, so areas stay true and the two can be laid over each other.
Data built: 2026-11-11

Full method