South Island and Nepal are almost exactly the same size

South Island (island) covers about 147,000 km² (56,800 mi²) and Nepal (country) about 147,000 km² (56,800 mi²). Their outlines are laid over each other below at one scale. The South Island outline is Natural Earth’s, checked against the published area.

147,000km²South Island
147,000km²Nepal

200 km

South Island
Nepal

What fits

Nepal is 100% of the size of South Island.
The measured areas differ by 94.5 km², less than half a percent: closer than the measurement itself is certain.
Measured in Belgiums: South Island is about 4.80, Nepal about 4.80.

How they differ

Their centres are about 11,900 km apart.
A standard web map misstates the comparison: South Island at 44°S is drawn about 1.9× too large and Nepal at 28°N about 1.3×, so the map shows South Island as 1.50× the size of Nepal instead of 1.00×.
Together South Island and Nepal cover 294,000 km², close to the size of Philippines (293,000 km², 0.3% smaller).
Nepal's centre is 72.2° of latitude, about 8,030 km, farther north than South Island's.
South Island is an island and ranks 11th of the 81 islands on sizeversus by area.
Nepal ranks 93rd of 212 countries by area.
Laid out flat, South Island stretches about 679 km north to south and 630 km east to west; Nepal about 450 km by 800 km.
Our measured 147,000 km² is 2.1% below Wikidata’s published figure of 150,000 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	South Island	1.00×
Farther north	Nepal	72.2° of latitude
Stretched more on a web map	South Island	1.9× against 1.3×

Both against the same yardsticks

Yardstick	South Island	Nepal
Belgium 30,700 km²	4.80×	4.80×
United Kingdom 244,000 km²	0.60×	0.60×
Germany 358,000 km²	0.41×	0.41×
Japan 374,000 km²	0.39×	0.39×
France 548,000 km²	0.27×	0.27×
India 3,151,000 km²	0.05×	0.05×
Brazil 8,473,000 km²	0.02×	0.02×
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

	South Island	Nepal
Is a	Islandisland on sizeversus	CountryAsia
Area, measured	147,000 km²56,800 mi²	147,000 km²56,800 mi²
Area, published	150,000 km²Wikidata	147,000 km²Wikidata
Rank by area	11th of 81islands	93rd of 212countries
Latitude range	47°S to 41°S	26°N to 30°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 South 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 South Island

Similar in size to Nepal

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