Melville Island and Bhutan are almost exactly the same size

Melville Island (island) covers about 40,400 km² (15,600 mi²) and Bhutan (country) about 40,400 km² (15,600 mi²). Their outlines are laid over each other below at one scale. The Melville Island outline is Natural Earth’s, checked against the published area.

40,400km²Melville Island
40,400km²Bhutan

100 km

Melville Island
Bhutan

What fits

Bhutan is 100% of the size of Melville Island.
The measured areas differ by 16.0 km², less than half a percent: closer than the measurement itself is certain.
Measured in Belgiums: Melville Island is about 1.32, Bhutan about 1.32.

How they differ

Their centres are about 8,460 km apart.
A standard web map misstates the comparison: Melville Island at 76°N is drawn about 16.0× too large and Bhutan at 27°N about 1.3×, so the map shows Melville Island as 12.6× the size of Bhutan instead of 1.00×.
Together Melville Island and Bhutan cover 80,900 km², close to the size of Czechia (78,800 km², 2.6% smaller).
Melville Island's centre is 48.1° of latitude, about 5,350 km, farther north than Bhutan's.
Melville Island is an island and ranks 31st of the 81 islands on sizeversus by area.
Bhutan ranks 135th of 212 countries by area.
Laid out flat, Melville Island stretches about 267 km north to south and 334 km east to west; Bhutan about 185 km by 332 km.
Our measured 40,400 km² is 4.1% below Wikidata’s published figure of 42,100 km². Published areas of lakes and seas move with the water level and with what is counted, so a few percent is expected.

Who wins on what

Measure	Winner	By
Larger area	Melville Island	1.00×
Farther north	Melville Island	48.1° of latitude
Stretched more on a web map	Melville Island	16.0× against 1.3×

Both against the same yardsticks

Yardstick	Melville Island	Bhutan
Belgium 30,700 km²	1.32×	1.32×
United Kingdom 244,000 km²	0.17×	0.17×
Germany 358,000 km²	0.11×	0.11×
Japan 374,000 km²	0.11×	0.11×
France 548,000 km²	0.07×	0.07×
India 3,151,000 km²	0.01×	0.01×
Brazil 8,473,000 km²	1 in 210	1 in 210
United States 9,447,000 km²	1 in 234	1 in 234
Russia 16,980,000 km²	1 in 420	1 in 420

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

Side by side

	Melville Island	Bhutan
Is a	Islandisland on sizeversus	CountryAsia
Area, measured	40,400 km²15,600 mi²	40,400 km²15,600 mi²
Area, published	42,100 km²Wikidata	38,400 km²Wikidata
Rank by area	31st of 81islands	135th of 212countries
Latitude range	74°N to 77°N	27°N to 28°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 Canada contain or lie within 4 km of the outline of Melville 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 Melville Island

Similar in size to Bhutan

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