Switzerland is 1.02× the size of Melville Island

Switzerland (country) covers about 41,400 km² (16,000 mi²) and Melville Island (island) about 40,400 km² (15,600 mi²). Below, both outlines are drawn at one scale and centred on each other. The Melville Island outline is Natural Earth’s, checked against the published area.

41,400km²Switzerland
40,400km²Melville Island

100 km

Switzerland
Melville Island

What fits

Melville Island is 98% of the size of Switzerland.
Switzerland is larger by 998 km² (385 mi²), which is 2.5% of the area of Melville Island.
Measured in Belgiums: Switzerland is about 1.35, Melville Island about 1.32.

How they differ

Their centres are about 5,740 km apart.
On a standard web map Melville Island looks larger than Switzerland: Switzerland at 47°N is drawn about 2.1× too large and Melville Island at 76°N about 16.0×, so the map shows Melville Island as 7.33× the size of Switzerland, when Switzerland is 1.02× the size of Melville Island.
Together Switzerland and Melville Island cover 81,900 km², close to the size of Austria (84,000 km², 2.6% bigger).
The gap between them, 998 km², is about the size of Hong Kong (1,040 km²).
Melville Island's centre is 28.7° of latitude, about 3,190 km, farther north than Switzerland's.
Switzerland ranks 134th of 212 countries by area.
Melville Island is an island and ranks 31st 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; Melville Island about 267 km by 334 km.
Our measured 40,400 km² is 4.1% below Wikidata’s published figure of 42,100 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	1.02×
Farther north	Melville Island	28.7° of latitude
Stretched more on a web map	Melville Island	16.0× against 2.1×

Both against the same yardsticks

Yardstick	Switzerland	Melville Island
Belgium 30,700 km²	1.35×	1.32×
United Kingdom 244,000 km²	0.17×	0.17×
Germany 358,000 km²	0.12×	0.11×
Japan 374,000 km²	0.11×	0.11×
France 548,000 km²	0.08×	0.07×
India 3,151,000 km²	0.01×	0.01×
Brazil 8,473,000 km²	1 in 204	1 in 210
United States 9,447,000 km²	1 in 228	1 in 234
Russia 16,980,000 km²	1 in 410	1 in 420

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

Side by side

	Switzerland	Melville Island
Is a	CountryEurope	Islandisland on sizeversus
Area, measured	41,400 km²16,000 mi²	40,400 km²15,600 mi²
Area, published	41,300 km²Wikidata	42,100 km²Wikidata
Rank by area	134th of 212countries	31st of 81islands
Latitude range	46°N to 48°N	74°N to 77°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 Melville 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 Melville 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