Island
Spitsbergen
Natural Earth’s outline of Spitsbergen measures about 37,000 km² (14,300 mi²), the 33rd largest of the 81 islands on sizeversus, and about the same size as the Netherlands.
- Netherlands
- Spitsbergen
The numbers
- 37,000km²Area, measured14,300 mi² · Natural Earth outline
- 39,000km²Area, publishedWikidata · 5.2% above our measure, flagged
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%. This one is between 5% and 10% apart, so it is flagged and no comparison is built for it automatically.
What the numbers say about Spitsbergen
- Greenland (island), the largest of the 81 islands ranked on sizeversus, is 58.7× the size of Spitsbergen; Spitsbergen ranks 33rd.
- Spitsbergen sits between Marajó (37,400 km²) and Taiwan Island (35,500 km²) in the ranking.
- Counted as a country, Spitsbergen would be larger than 76 of the 212 countries listed on sizeversus and would rank 137th by area, between the Netherlands (37,100 km²) and Taiwan (36,200 km²).
- It is larger than 10 of the 51 US states and districts (the biggest of them is Maryland, 25,500 km²) and smaller than 41.
- It is larger than 4 of the 31 provinces and regions of China (the biggest of them is Hainan, 33,800 km²) and smaller than 27.
- The closest Chinese province is Hainan (33,800 km²): Spitsbergen is 1.09× the size of Hainan.
- On a standard web map (Web Mercator), a place at 79°N is drawn about 25.4× too large in area, so Spitsbergen looks bigger there than it is.
- Laid out flat, Spitsbergen stretches about 386 km north to south and 223 km east to west.
- Our measured 37,000 km² is 5.2% below Wikidata’s published figure of 39,000 km². This difference is flagged for review: a lake’s outline may include islands or bays that the published figure leaves out, or the water level may differ. The outline is kept because it is within 10%, and this page is not matched automatically to any other.
About the same size as
Countries
Where it lies
Natural Earth’s outlines of Norway contain or lie within 4 km of the outline of Spitsbergen. 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 Spitsbergen ranks
Spitsbergen is the 33rd largest of the 81 islands on sizeversus, ranked by measured area.
Share this outline
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