Switzerland and Axel Heiberg Island are almost exactly the same size

Switzerland (country) covers about 41,400 km² (16,000 mi²) and Axel Heiberg Island (island) about 41,400 km² (16,000 mi²). Their outlines are laid over each other below at one scale. The Axel Heiberg Island outline is Natural Earth’s, checked against the published area.

41,400km²Switzerland
41,400km²Axel Heiberg Island

100 km

Switzerland
Axel Heiberg Island

What fits

Axel Heiberg Island is 100% of the size of Switzerland.
The measured areas differ by 35.8 km², less than half a percent: closer than the measurement itself is certain.
Measured in Belgiums: Switzerland is about 1.35, Axel Heiberg Island about 1.35.

How they differ

Their centres are about 5,090 km apart.
On a standard web map Axel Heiberg Island looks larger than Switzerland: Switzerland at 47°N is drawn about 2.1× too large and Axel Heiberg Island at 80°N about 30.9×, so the map shows Axel Heiberg Island as 14.4× the size of Switzerland, when Switzerland is 1.00× the size of Axel Heiberg Island.
Together Switzerland and Axel Heiberg Island cover 82,800 km², close to the size of Austria (84,000 km², 1.4% bigger).
Axel Heiberg Island's centre is 32.8° of latitude, about 3,650 km, farther north than Switzerland's.
Switzerland ranks 134th of 212 countries by area.
Axel Heiberg Island is an island and ranks 30th of the 81 islands on sizeversus by area.
Laid out flat, Switzerland stretches about 220 km north to south and 346 km east to west; Axel Heiberg Island about 357 km by 231 km.
Our measured 41,400 km² is 4.1% below Wikidata’s published figure of 43,200 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	Switzerland	1.00×
Farther north	Axel Heiberg Island	32.8° of latitude
Stretched more on a web map	Axel Heiberg Island	30.9× against 2.1×

Both against the same yardsticks

Yardstick	Switzerland	Axel Heiberg Island
Belgium 30,700 km²	1.35×	1.35×
United Kingdom 244,000 km²	0.17×	0.17×
Germany 358,000 km²	0.12×	0.12×
Japan 374,000 km²	0.11×	0.11×
France 548,000 km²	0.08×	0.08×
India 3,151,000 km²	0.01×	0.01×
Brazil 8,473,000 km²	1 in 204	1 in 205
United States 9,447,000 km²	1 in 228	1 in 228
Russia 16,980,000 km²	1 in 410	1 in 410

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

Side by side

	Switzerland	Axel Heiberg Island
Is a	CountryEurope	Islandisland on sizeversus
Area, measured	41,400 km²16,000 mi²	41,400 km²16,000 mi²
Area, published	41,300 km²Wikidata	43,200 km²Wikidata
Rank by area	134th of 212countries	30th of 81islands
Latitude range	46°N to 48°N	78°N to 81°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 Axel Heiberg 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 Switzerland

Similar in size to Axel Heiberg Island

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