Italy is 14.7× the size of El Salvador

Italy covers about 301,000 km² (116,000 mi²) and El Salvador about 20,500 km² (7,930 mi²). Below, both outlines are drawn at one scale and centred on each other.

301,000km²Italy
20,500km²El Salvador

200 km

Italy
El Salvador

What fits

El Salvador fits inside Italy about 14.7 times by area.
Italy is larger by 281,000 km² (108,000 mi²), which is 1,366% of the area of El Salvador.
Measured in Belgiums: Italy is about 9.82, El Salvador about 0.67.

How they differ

Italy also has the larger population: 58.9 million against 6.0 million, 9.76× as many people.
Per square kilometre that is 294 in El Salvador against 195 in Italy: El Salvador is 1.50× as densely populated.
Their centres are about 9,850 km apart.
A standard web map misstates the comparison: Italy at 43°N is drawn about 1.9× too large and El Salvador at 14°N about 1.1×, so the map shows Italy as 25.6× the size of El Salvador instead of 14.7×.
Together Italy and El Salvador cover 322,000 km², close to the size of Ivory Coast (321,000 km², 0.3% smaller).
The gap between them, 281,000 km², is about the size of Burkina Faso (273,000 km²).
At El Salvador's density, Italy would have 88.4 million people (it has 58.9 million). At Italy's density, El Salvador would have 4.0 million (it has 6.0 million).
Italy's centre is 29.0° of latitude, about 3,220 km, farther north than El Salvador's.

Who wins on what

Measure	Winner	By
Larger area	Italy	14.7×
More people	Italy	9.76×
More crowded	El Salvador	1.50×
Farther north	Italy	29.0° of latitude
Stretched more on a web map	Italy	1.9× against 1.1×

Both against the same yardsticks

Yardstick	Italy	El Salvador
Belgium 30,700 km²	9.82×	0.67×
United Kingdom 244,000 km²	1.24×	0.08×
Germany 358,000 km²	0.84×	0.06×
Japan 374,000 km²	0.81×	0.05×
France 548,000 km²	0.55×	0.04×
India 3,151,000 km²	0.10×	0.01×
Brazil 8,473,000 km²	0.04×	1 in 413
United States 9,447,000 km²	0.03×	1 in 460
Russia 16,980,000 km²	0.02×	1 in 827

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

Side by side

	Italy	El Salvador
Area, main territory	301,000 km²116,000 mi²	20,500 km²7,930 mi²
Population	58.9 millionWikidata, 2023	6.0 millionWikidata, 2024
Density	195 per km²	294 per km²
Official area	302,000 km²Wikidata	21,000 km²Wikidata
Capital	Rome	San Salvador
Latitude range	35°N to 47°N	13°N to 14°N
Continent	Europe	North America

Population: Wikidata 2023 and Wikidata 2024, covering each whole country. Official figures: Wikidata (CC0).

Wikidata's official figure of 302,000 km² agrees with our measured area of 301,000 km², to within 2%.
Our measured 20,500 km² is 2.4% below Wikidata's official figure of 21,000 km². Official figures can include inland water or count land that an outline draws differently.

Similar in size to Italy

Similar in size to El Salvador

More comparisons

Sources and method

Outlines: Natural Earth, 1:10m Admin 0 - Countries, public domain
Boundary: De facto, as drawn by Natural Earth. Main territory: the largest landmass and every part within 1,000 km of it.
Area: Measured on the WGS84 ellipsoid from the full-detail outlines, shown rounded. Comparisons use main-territory area.
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