Panama and Sakhalin are almost exactly the same size

Panama (country) covers about 74,500 km² (28,800 mi²) and Sakhalin (island) about 74,500 km² (28,800 mi²). Their outlines are laid over each other below at one scale. The Sakhalin outline is Natural Earth’s, checked against the published area.

74,500km²Panama
74,500km²Sakhalin

200 km

Panama
Sakhalin

What fits

Sakhalin is 100% of the size of Panama.
The measured areas differ by 46.9 km², less than half a percent: closer than the measurement itself is certain.
Measured in Belgiums: Panama is about 2.43, Sakhalin about 2.43.

How they differ

Their centres are about 12,300 km apart.
On a standard web map Sakhalin looks larger than Panama: Panama at 9°N is drawn about 1.0× too large and Sakhalin at 50°N about 2.4×, so the map shows Sakhalin as 2.39× the size of Panama, when Panama is 1.00× the size of Sakhalin.
Together Panama and Sakhalin cover 149,000 km², close to the size of Nepal (147,000 km², 1.3% smaller).
Sakhalin's centre is 41.7° of latitude, about 4,640 km, farther north than Panama's.
Panama ranks 118th of 212 countries by area.
Sakhalin is an island and ranks 21st of the 81 islands on sizeversus by area.
Laid out flat, Panama stretches about 269 km north to south and 648 km east to west; Sakhalin about 945 km by 219 km.
Our measured 74,500 km² is 2.8% above Wikidata’s published figure of 72,500 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	Panama	1.00×
Farther north	Sakhalin	41.7° of latitude
Stretched more on a web map	Sakhalin	2.4× against 1.0×

Both against the same yardsticks

Yardstick	Panama	Sakhalin
Belgium 30,700 km²	2.43×	2.43×
United Kingdom 244,000 km²	0.31×	0.31×
Germany 358,000 km²	0.21×	0.21×
Japan 374,000 km²	0.20×	0.20×
France 548,000 km²	0.14×	0.14×
India 3,151,000 km²	0.02×	0.02×
Brazil 8,473,000 km²	0.01×	0.01×
United States 9,447,000 km²	0.01×	0.01×
Russia 16,980,000 km²	1 in 228	1 in 228

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

Side by side

	Panama	Sakhalin
Is a	CountryNorth America	Islandisland on sizeversus
Area, measured	74,500 km²28,800 mi²	74,500 km²28,800 mi²
Area, published	74,200 km²Wikidata	72,500 km²Wikidata
Rank by area	118th of 212countries	21st of 81islands
Latitude range	7°N to 10°N	46°N to 54°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 Russia contain or lie within 4 km of the outline of Sakhalin. 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 Panama

Similar in size to Sakhalin

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