Minnesota Is Way Bigger Than These 5 Entire Countries
Minnesota doesn’t always feel massive until you zoom out and look at the map. When you stack it up against the rest of the world, the North Star State quietly out-sizes several entire well-known countries, all with their own borders, governments, and passports.
Minnesota Is Bigger Than You Might Think
States like Alaska and Texas routinely pop into your head when you think of states that are just plain big. And both of those states do cover a lot of area, mind you. But the Land of 10,000 Lakes isn't exactly a slouch when it comes to land area. In fact, Minnesota is quite a bit larger than a LOT of independent nations!
According to the state of Minnesota, the Gopher State ranks 12th in area among the 50 U.S. states:
The area of Minnesota is 225,181 sq km (86,943 sq mi), of which 12,380 sq km (4,780 sq mi) is inland water and 6,594 sq km (2,546 sq mi) is a portion of Lake Superior under the state's jurisdiction.
How Minnesota Compares to Countries Around the World
When you put Minnesota's size up against other COUNTRIES, however, we're *still* much larger in size than some pretty familiar nations. In fact, according to geography comparisons from RealCountrySizes, if Minnesota were its own country, it would rank around 83rd largest in the world out of 195 sovereign countries (based on total area).
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That means Minnesota is larger than roughly 118 other countries by area, a figure that dwarfs some rather well-known nations. Did you know that with our 86,943 square miles, Minnesota is larger than THESE countries?
Five Well-Known Countries Smaller Than Minnesota
1) Portugal - The country known as The Garden Planted At The Edge Of The Sea is only 35,600 square miles.
2) Ireland - The Emerald Isle is only 32,600 square miles in total area.
3) Switzerland - The country known as The Playground Of Europe comprises only 15,900 square miles.
4) The Netherlands - The country also known as Holland is just 16,000 square miles in area.
5) Belgium - The country known as the Battlefield Of Europe is just 11,800 square miles in total area.
