North Island is 1.09× the size of Iceland

North Island (island) covers about 111,000 km² (43,000 mi²) and Iceland (country) about 102,000 km² (39,500 mi²). Below, both outlines are drawn at one scale and centred on each other. The North Island outline is Natural Earth’s, checked against the published area.

111,000km²North Island
102,000km²Iceland

100 km

North Island
Iceland

What fits

Iceland is 92% of the size of North Island.
North Island is larger by 9,040 km² (3,490 mi²), which is 8.8% of the area of Iceland.
Measured in Belgiums: North Island is about 3.63, Iceland about 3.34.

How they differ

Their centres are about 16,900 km apart.
On a standard web map Iceland looks larger than North Island: North Island at 39°S is drawn about 1.6× too large and Iceland at 65°N about 5.6×, so the map shows Iceland as 3.14× the size of North Island, when North Island is 1.09× the size of Iceland.
Together North Island and Iceland cover 214,000 km², close to the size of Guyana (211,000 km², 1.2% smaller).
The gap between them, 9,040 km², is about the size of Lebanon (10,000 km²).
Iceland's centre is 103.6° of latitude, about 11,520 km, farther north than North Island's.
North Island is an island and ranks 13th of the 81 islands on sizeversus by area.
Iceland ranks 107th of 212 countries by area.
Laid out flat, North Island stretches about 795 km north to south and 524 km east to west; Iceland about 351 km by 512 km.
Our measured 111,000 km² is 2.0% below Wikidata’s published figure of 114,000 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	North Island	1.09×
Farther north	Iceland	103.6° of latitude
Stretched more on a web map	Iceland	5.6× against 1.6×

Both against the same yardsticks

Yardstick	North Island	Iceland
Belgium 30,700 km²	3.63×	3.34×
United Kingdom 244,000 km²	0.46×	0.42×
Germany 358,000 km²	0.31×	0.29×
Japan 374,000 km²	0.30×	0.27×
France 548,000 km²	0.20×	0.19×
India 3,151,000 km²	0.04×	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

	North Island	Iceland
Is a	Islandisland on sizeversus	CountryEurope
Area, measured	111,000 km²43,000 mi²	102,000 km²39,500 mi²
Area, published	114,000 km²Wikidata	103,000 km²Wikidata
Rank by area	13th of 81islands	107th of 212countries
Latitude range	42°S to 34°S	63°N to 67°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 New Zealand contain or lie within 4 km of the outline of North 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 North Island

Similar in size to Iceland

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