Island

Java

Natural Earth’s outline of Java measures about 124,000 km² (47,800 mi²), the 12th largest of the 81 islands on sizeversus, and about the same size as Eritrea.

In area1.01×the size ofEritrea123,000 km² Among US states1.00×the size ofMississippi124,000 km²

200 km

Java
Eritrea

The numbers

124,000km²Area, measured47,800 mi² · Natural Earth outline
128,000km²Area, publishedWikidata · 3.4% above our measure

The area is measured from the outline drawn above, on the WGS84 ellipsoid; the published figure is shown beside it, and a water body is kept only if the two are within 10%.

What the numbers say about Java

Greenland (island), the largest of the 81 islands ranked on sizeversus, is 17.5× the size of Java; Java ranks 12th.
Java sits between South Island (147,000 km²) and North Island (111,000 km²) in the ranking.
Counted as a country, Java would be larger than 114 of the 212 countries listed on sizeversus and would rank 99th by area, between Nicaragua (129,000 km²) and Eritrea (123,000 km²).
It is larger than 21 of the 51 US states and districts (the biggest of them is Mississippi, 124,000 km²) and smaller than 30.
It is larger than 9 of the 31 provinces and regions of China (the biggest of them is Fujian, 121,000 km²) and smaller than 22.
The closest US state is Mississippi (124,000 km²): Java is about the same size as Mississippi.
Java lies at 7°S, close to the equator, where a standard web map (Web Mercator) is nearly true to size: it inflates area by only about 1.0×.
Laid out flat, Java stretches about 319 km north to south and 1,030 km east to west.
Our measured 124,000 km² is 3.4% below Wikidata’s published figure of 128,000 km². Published areas of lakes and seas move with the water level and with what is counted, so a few percent is expected.

About the same size as

Countries

US states

Chinese provinces

Lakes and seas

Where it lies

Indonesia

Natural Earth’s outlines of Indonesia contain or lie within 4 km of the outline of Java. That is what its geometry says, and it is not a statement about who owns the water or where any border runs in it.

Where Java ranks

Java is the 12th largest of the 81 islands on sizeversus, ranked by measured area.

Ranked islands

All islands, matched to countries

Compare Java

Sources and method

Outline: Natural Earth, 1:10m Geography Regions (geography_regions_polys), public domain (Geography Regions (geography_regions_polys)). Outlines of lakes are drawn at 1:10 million.
Boundary: A lake or a sea has no legal boundary of its own. The outline is a cartographic one, and the page says so by showing the measured area beside the published one.
Area basis: Measured outline: computed on the WGS84 ellipsoid from the full-detail outline and shown rounded. Published figure: Wikidata (CC0), fetched 2026-11-11. An outline is kept within 10% of the published figure and matched to other places automatically within 5%.
Shore: Countries whose Natural Earth outline contains or comes close to the water's outline; computed, not a statement of ownership.
Drawing: Each outline is projected with an equal-area projection centred on its own centroid, so areas stay true and two can be laid over each other.
Data built: 2026-11-11

Full method