Rio de Janeiro is 1.70× the size of Sicily (Italy)

Rio de Janeiro (state of Brazil) covers about 44,000 km² (17,000 mi²) and Sicily (Italy) (region of Italy) about 25,900 km² (9,990 mi²). Below, both outlines are drawn at one scale and centred on each other.

44,000km²Rio de Janeiro
25,900km²Sicily (Italy)

100 km

Rio de Janeiro
Sicily (Italy)

What fits

Sicily (Italy) is 59% of the size of Rio de Janeiro.
Rio de Janeiro is larger by 18,100 km² (6,990 mi²), which is 70% of the area of Sicily (Italy).
Measured in Belgiums: Rio de Janeiro is about 1.43, Sicily (Italy) about 0.84.

How they differ

Rio de Janeiro also has the larger population: 16.1 million against 5.0 million, 3.22× as many people.
Per square kilometre that is 365 in Rio de Janeiro against 193 in Sicily (Italy): Rio de Janeiro is 1.89× as densely populated.
Their centres are about 8,910 km apart.
A standard web map misstates the comparison: Rio de Janeiro at 22°S is drawn about 1.2× too large and Sicily (Italy) at 38°N about 1.6×, so the map shows Rio de Janeiro as 1.25× the size of Sicily (Italy) instead of 1.70×.
Together Rio de Janeiro and Sicily (Italy) cover 69,800 km², close to the size of Georgia (69,600 km², 0.4% smaller).
The gap between them, 18,100 km², is about the size of Kuwait (17,500 km²).
At Sicily (Italy)'s density, Rio de Janeiro would have 8.5 million people (it has 16.1 million). At Rio de Janeiro's density, Sicily (Italy) would have 9.4 million (it has 5.0 million).
Sicily (Italy)'s centre is 59.8° of latitude, about 6,650 km, farther north than Rio de Janeiro's.
Rio de Janeiro is the 24th largest of the 27 states and districts of Brazil and covers 0.5% of its area; it is the 2nd most densely populated of them.
Sicily (Italy) is the largest of the 20 regions of Italy and covers 8.6% of its area; it is the 8th most densely populated of them.
Sicily (Italy) lies about 60° of latitude (roughly 6,650 km) north of Rio de Janeiro, on the other side of the equator.
Shared out evenly, each person in Rio de Janeiro would have about 2,740 m² and each person in Sicily (Italy) about 5,190 m².
Laid side by side, Rio de Janeiro and Sicily (Italy) would cover 69,800 km², about the same size as Georgia.
Together they have 21.0 million people, about as many people as Sri Lanka.

Side by side

	Rio de Janeiro	Sicily (Italy)
Is a	StateBrazil	RegionItaly
Area, measured	44,000 km²17,000 mi²	25,900 km²9,990 mi²
Official area	43,700 km²Wikidata	25,700 km²Wikidata
Rank by area	24th of 27in Brazil	1st of 20in Italy
Population	16.1 millionWikidata, 2022	5.0 millionWikidata, 2019
Rank by population	3rd of 27in Brazil	4th of 20in Italy
Density	365 per km²	193 per km²
Capital	Rio de Janeiro	Palermo
Latitude range	23°S to 21°S	35°N to 39°N

Population: Wikidata 2022 and Wikidata 2019. Official figures: Wikidata (CC0).

Wikidata's official figure of 43,700 km² agrees with our measured area of 44,000 km², to within 2%.
Wikidata's official figure of 25,700 km² agrees with our measured area of 25,900 km², to within 2%.

Similar in size to Rio de Janeiro

Similar in size to Sicily (Italy)

More comparisons

Sources and method

Outlines: Natural Earth, 1:10m Admin 1 - States, Provinces, public domain. The outline of Sicily (Italy) is the provinces Natural Earth draws there, joined along their shared borders.
Boundary: De facto, as drawn by Natural Earth. A region is drawn whole, every island included; a country is its main territory.
Area: Measured on the WGS84 ellipsoid from the full-detail outlines, shown rounded.
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: 2026-11-12

Full method