Laos is 1.01× the size of Honshu

Laos (country) covers about 228,000 km² (88,100 mi²) and Honshu (island) about 225,000 km² (86,900 mi²). Below, both outlines are drawn at one scale and centred on each other. The Honshu outline is Natural Earth’s, checked against the published area.

228,000km²Laos
225,000km²Honshu

200 km

Laos
Honshu

What fits

Honshu is 99% of the size of Laos.
Laos is larger by 3,130 km² (1,210 mi²), which is 1.4% of the area of Honshu.
Measured in Belgiums: Laos is about 7.44, Honshu about 7.34.

How they differ

Their centres are about 3,890 km apart.
On a standard web map Honshu looks larger than Laos: Laos at 18°N is drawn about 1.1× too large and Honshu at 37°N about 1.6×, so the map shows Honshu as 1.38× the size of Laos, when Laos is 1.01× the size of Honshu.
Together Laos and Honshu cover 453,000 km², close to the size of Yemen (453,000 km², 0.0% smaller).
The gap between them, 3,130 km², is about the size of Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (3,320 km²).
Honshu's centre is 18.2° of latitude, about 2,020 km, farther north than Laos's.
Laos ranks 83rd of 212 countries by area.
Honshu is an island and ranks 6th of the 81 islands on sizeversus by area.
Laid out flat, Laos stretches about 953 km north to south and 800 km east to west; Honshu about 893 km by 994 km.
Wikidata’s published figure of 228,000 km² agrees with our measured 225,000 km², to within 2%.

Who wins on what

Measure	Winner	By
Larger area	Laos	1.01×
Farther north	Honshu	18.2° of latitude
Stretched more on a web map	Honshu	1.6× against 1.1×

Both against the same yardsticks

Yardstick	Laos	Honshu
Belgium 30,700 km²	7.44×	7.34×
United Kingdom 244,000 km²	0.94×	0.92×
Germany 358,000 km²	0.64×	0.63×
Japan 374,000 km²	0.61×	0.60×
France 548,000 km²	0.42×	0.41×
India 3,151,000 km²	0.07×	0.07×
Brazil 8,473,000 km²	0.03×	0.03×
United States 9,447,000 km²	0.02×	0.02×
Russia 16,980,000 km²	0.01×	0.01×

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

Side by side

	Laos	Honshu
Is a	CountryAsia	Islandisland on sizeversus
Area, measured	228,000 km²88,100 mi²	225,000 km²86,900 mi²
Area, published	237,000 km²Wikidata	228,000 km²Wikidata
Rank by area	83rd of 212countries	6th of 81islands
Latitude range	14°N to 22°N	33°N to 42°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 Japan contain or lie within 4 km of the outline of Honshu. 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 Laos

Similar in size to Honshu

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