How big is Greenland?

Greenland covers about 836,000 square miles (2.17 million km²), making it the largest island in the world. On a standard web map it looks about the size of Africa, but Africa is about 14 times bigger.

square miles: 836,330
km²: 2.17 million
acres: 535 million
football fields: 405 million

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<iframe src="https://how-big-is.com/embed/greenland/" title="How big is Greenland? Interactive map" width="100%" height="520" style="border:0;max-width:100%" loading="lazy" allow="geolocation; clipboard-write"></iframe>
<p style="font:13px/1.4 sans-serif;margin:6px 0 0">Map: <a href="https://how-big-is.com/greenland/">How big is Greenland?</a> by how-big-is.com. Outline: Natural Earth.</p>

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CreditMap: how-big-is.com. Outline: Natural Earth.

Why it looks so big

Most web maps use the Mercator projection, which stretches shapes more the closer they are to the poles. Greenland sits so far north that it is drawn several times too large. Switch the map to flat view, then drag Greenland toward the equator and watch it shrink.

Mostly ice

About 80% of Greenland is covered by an ice sheet. The outline here is the coastline from Natural Earth, simplified for the web.

How it compares

3,096×the size of the Little Giant Fire
535 millionacres
405 millionAmerican football fields
303 millionsoccer pitches
634,937×the size of Central Park
4.41 million×the size of Vatican City
241×the size of Yellowstone National Park
4,379×the size of Lake Tahoe

Questions people ask

Is Greenland bigger than Africa?

No. Africa is about 14 times bigger.

How big is Greenland compared to the US?

A little under a quarter of the size of the United States.

How big is Greenland compared to Texas?

About three times the size of Texas.

Where the numbers come from

Official figure: about 836,330 square miles. Outline measured at 537 million acres (2.17 million km²) on the WGS84 ellipsoid. Outline: Natural Earth (source), licence: Public domain.