List of countries by length of coastline

This article contains a list of countries by length of coastline, in kilometers. Though the coastline paradox stipulates that coastlines do not have a well-defined length, there are various methods in use to measure coastlines through ratios and other metrics. A coastline of zero indicates that the country is landlocked.

Overview

An example of the coastline paradox. If measured using an interval of 125 mi (200 km), the coast of Great Britain has a length of about 1,500 mi (2,400 km). Using an interval of 30 mi (50 km), the length is about 2,100 mi (3,400 km).

The coastline paradox states that a coastline does not have a well-defined length. Measurements of the length of a coastline behave like a fractal, being different at different scale intervals (distance between points on the coastline at which measurements are taken). The smaller the scale interval (meaning the more detailed the measurement), the longer the coastline will be.^[a] This "magnifying" effect is greater for convoluted coastlines than for relatively smooth ones.

• Data marked The World Factbook or TWF covers 198 countries and 55 territories, from the book published by the Central Intelligence Agency. In addition to coastline lengths, this is the source of the land area used to calculate the "coast/area ratio" for both TWF and WRI (see below) coastline measurement. This ratio measures how many metres of coastline correspond to every square kilometer of land area. The ratio illustrates the ease of accessibility to the country's coast from every point in its interior. Therefore, an island country like Maldives, or a country carved by the sea like Greece, is more likely to have a high ratio, while a landlocked country will have a ratio of zero. Note that the scales at which The World Factbook figures were measured are not stated, nor is it known whether the figures are all reported using the same scale, thus the figures are not necessarily comparable across different countries.
• Data marked World Resources Institute or WRI covers 182 independent countries and 13 dependencies, based on data calculated in 2000 from the World Vector Shoreline, United States Defense Mapping Agency, 1989. It may include territories whose status have changed. According to their technical notes, the "coastline length was derived from the World Vector Shoreline database at 1:250,000 scale. The estimates (...) were calculated using a Geographic Information System (GIS) and an underlying database consistent for the entire world. The methodology used to estimate length is based on the following: 1) A country's coastline is made up of individual lines, and an individual line has two or more vertices and/or nodes. 2) The length between two vertices is calculated on the surface of a sphere. 3) The sum of the lengths of the pairs of vertices is aggregated for each individual line, and 4) the sum of the lengths of individual lines was aggregated for a country. In general, the coastline length of islands that are part of a country, but are not overseas territories, are included in the coastline estimate for that country (e.g., Canary Islands are included in Spain). Coastline length for overseas territories and dependencies are listed separately. Disputed areas are not included in country or regional totals."^[1]

List

Data are from the CIA World Factbook^[2][3] and the World Resources Institute.^[1] Non-sovereign areas are listed in italics.

Location	Coastline (km)		Land area (km2)	Coast/area ratio (m/km2)		Coast/ area0.5 ratio (CIA)	Note
	(CIA)	(WRI)		(CIA)	(WRI)
World	356,000	1,634,701	148,940,000	2.39	11.0	29.2	[b]
Canada	202,080	265,523	9,093,507	22.2	29.2	67
Norway	83,281	53,199	304,282	274	175	151	[c]
Indonesia	54,716	95,181	1,811,569	30.2	52.5	40.7
European Union	53,563		4,236,351	12.6		26	[d]
Greenland	44,087		2,166,086	20.4		30	[e]
Russia	37,653	110,310	16,377,742	2.30	6.74	9.3	[f]
Philippines	36,289	33,900	298,170	122	114	66.5
Japan	29,751	29,020	364,485	81.6	79.6	49.3
Australia	25,760	66,530	7,682,300	3.35	8.66	9.29
United States	19,924	133,312	9,147,593	2.18	14.6	6.59
Antarctica	17,968		14,200,000	1.27		4.77
New Zealand	15,134	17,209	264,537	57.2	65.1	29.4
China	14,500	30,017	9,326,410	1.55	3.22	4.75
Greece	13,676	15,147	130,647	105	116	37.8	[c]
United Kingdom	12,429	19,717	241,930	51.4	81.5	25.3
Mexico	9,330	23,761	1,943,945	4.80	12.2	6.69
Italy	7,600	9,226	294,140	25.8	31.4	14
Brazil	7,491	33,379	8,358,140	0.896	3.99	2.59
Turkey	7,200	8,140	769,632	9.36	10.6	8.21
India	7,000	17,181	2,973,193	2.35	5.78	4.06
Chile	6,435	78,563	743,812	8.65	106	7.46
Micronesia	6,112	1,295	702	8,710	1,840	231
Croatia	5,835	5,664	55,974	112	101	24.7	[c]
Solomon Islands	5,313	9,880	27,986	190	353	31.8
Papua New Guinea	5,152	20,197	452,860	11.4	44.6	7.66
Argentina	4,989	8,397	2,736,690	1.82	3.07	3.02
Iceland	4,970	8,506	100,250	49.6	84.8	15.7
Spain	4,964	7,268	498,980	9.95	14.6	7.03	[g]
France	4,853	7,330	640,427	7.58	11.4	6.06
Madagascar	4,828	9,935	581,540	8.30	17.1	6.33
Malaysia	4,675	9,323	328,657	14.2	28.4	8.15
Estonia	3,794	2,956	42,388	89.5	69.7	18.4
Cuba	3,735	14,519	109,820	34.0	132	11.3
Svalbard	3,587		62,045	57.8		14.4
Bahamas	3,542	11,238	10,010	354	1,120	35.4
Vietnam	3,444	11,409	310,070	11.1	36.8	6.18	[h]
Somalia	3,333	3,898	627,337	4.82	6.21	4.21
Thailand	3,219	7,066	510,890	6.30	13.8	4.5
Sweden	3,218	26,384	410,335	7.84	64.3	5.02
Colombia	3,208	5,875	1,038,700	3.09	5.66	3.15
Coral Sea Islands	3,095		<3	>1,000,000
French Southern and Antarctic Lands	2,948.4		7,667.6	385		33.7	[i]
Morocco	2,945	2,009	716,550	2.56	2.80	3.48
Venezuela	2,800	6,762	882,050	3.17	7.67	2.98
South Africa	2,798	3,751	1,214,470	2.30	3.09	2.54
Ukraine	2,782	4,953	579,330	4.80	8.55	3.66
Saudi Arabia	2,640	7,572	2,149,690	1.23	3.52	1.8
Vanuatu	2,528	3,132	12,189	207	257	22.9
French Polynesia	2,525	5,830	3,827	660	1,520	40.8
North Korea	2,495	4,009	120,408	20.7	33.3	7.19
Panama	2,490	5,637	74,340	33.5	75.8	9.13
Mozambique	2,470	6,942	786,380	3.14	8.83	2.79
Egypt	2,450	5,898	995,450	2.46	5.92	2.46
Iran	2,440	5,891	1,531,595	1.59	3.85	1.97	[j][c]
Peru	2,414	3,362	1,279,996	1.89	2.63	2.13
South Korea	2,413	12,478	96,920	24.9	129	7.75
Germany	2,389	3,624	348,672	6.85	10.4	4.05
New Caledonia	2,254	3,624	18,275	123	198	16.7
Ecuador	2,237	4,597	276,841	8.08	16.6	4.25
Eritrea	2,234	3,446	101,000	22.1	34.1	7.03	[c]
Oman	2,092	2,810	309,500	6.76	9.08	3.76
Myanmar	1,930	14,708	653,508	2.95	22.5	2.39
Yemen	1,906	3,149	527,968	3.61	5.96	2.62
Portugal	1,793	2,830	91,470	19.6	30.9	5.93
Haiti	1,771	1,977	27,560	64.3	71.7	10.7
Libya	1,770	2,025	1,759,540	1.01	1.15	1.33
Angola	1,600	2,252	1,246,700	1.28	1.81	1.43
Namibia	1,572	1,754	823,290	1.91	2.13	1.73
Taiwan	1,566.3	2,007	32,260	48.6	62.2	8.72
Palau	1,519		459	3,310		70.9
Northern Mariana Islands	1,482		464	3,190		68.8
Ireland	1,448	6,437	68,883	21.0	93.4	5.52
Tanzania	1,424	3,461	885,800	1.61	3.91	1.51
Sri Lanka	1,340	2,825	64,630	20.7	43.7	5.27
United Arab Emirates	1,318	2,871	83,600	15.8	34.3	4.56
Costa Rica	1,290	2,069	51,060	25.3	40.5	5.71
Dominican Republic	1,288	1,612	48,320	26.7	33.4	5.86
Falkland Islands	1,288		12,173	106		11.7
Finland	1,250	31,119	303,815	4.11	102	2.27
Tunisia	1,148	1,927	155,360	7.39	12.4	2.91
Kiribati	1,143	1,961	811	1,410	2,420	40.1
Fiji	1,129	4,638	18,274	61.8	254	8.35
Faroe Islands	1,117		1,393	802		29.9
Pakistan	1,046	2,599	770,875	1.36	3.37	1.19
Jamaica	1,022	895	10,831	94.4	82.6	9.82
Algeria	998	1,557	2,381,740	0.419	0.654	0.647
Cape Verde	965	1,121	4,033	239	278	15.2
Spratly Islands	926		<5	>200,000
Nicaragua	910	1,915	119,990	7.58	16.0	2.63
Gabon	885	2,019	257,667	3.43	7.84	1.74
Nigeria	853	3,122	910,768	0.937	3.43	0.894
Sudan	853	2,245	1,731,671	0.493	1.30	0.648
Honduras	832	1,878	111,890	7.44	16.8	2.49	[k]
Mauritania	754	1,268	1,030,700	0.732	1.23	0.743
Hong Kong	733	955	1,073	683	890	22.4
Timor-Leste	706		14,874	47.5		5.79
British Indian Ocean Territory	698		60	11,600		90.1
Uruguay	660	1,096	175,015	3.77	6.26	1.58
Cyprus	648	671	9,241	70.1	72.6	6.74
Maldives	644	2,002	298	2,160	6,720	37.3
Bangladesh	580	3,306	148,470	4.46	25.4	1.61
Liberia	579	842	96,320	6.01	8.74	1.87
Qatar	563	909	11,586	48.6	78.5	5.23
Ghana	539	758	227,533	2.37	3.33	1.13
Kenya	536	1,586	569,140	0.942	2.79	0.71
Senegal	531	1,327	192,530	2.76	6.89	1.21
Paracel Islands	518		7.75	66,800		186
Ivory Coast	515	797	318,003	1.62	2.51	0.913
Puerto Rico	501	1,094	8,959	55.9	122	5.29
Kuwait	499	756	17,818	28.0	42.4	3.74
Latvia	498	566	62,249	8.00	9.09	2
Seychelles	491	747	455	1,080	1,640	23
Guyana	459	1,154	196,849	2.33	5.86	1.03
Netherlands	451	1,914	33,893	13.3	56.5	2.45	[l]
Cambodia	443	1,127	176,515	2.51	6.38	1.05
Poland	440	1,032	304,255	1.45	3.39	0.798
Tonga	419	909	717	584	1,270	15.6
Samoa	403	463	2,821	143	164	7.59
Cameroon	402	1,799	472,710	0.850	3.81	0.585
Sierra Leone	402	1,677	71,620	5.61	23.4	1.5
Guatemala	400	445	107,159	3.73	4.15	1.22
Turks and Caicos Islands	389		948	410		12.6
Belize	386	1,996	22,806	16.9	87.5	2.56
Suriname	386	620	156,000	2.47	3.97	0.977
Marshall Islands	370.4	2,106	181	2,050	11,600	27.5
Curaçao	364		444	820		17.3
Albania	362	649	27,398	13.2	23.7	2.19
Trinidad and Tobago	362	704	5,128	70.6	137	5.06
Bulgaria	354	457	108,489	3.26	4.21	1.07
Guinea-Bissau	350	3,176	28,120	12.4	113	2.09
Comoros	340	469	2,235	152	210	7.19
Guinea	320	1,615	245,717	1.30	6.57	0.646
Djibouti	314	443	23,180	13.5	19.1	2.06
Georgia	310	376	69,700	4.45	5.39	1.17
El Salvador	307	756	20,721	14.8	36.5	2.13
Equatorial Guinea	296	603	28,051	10.6	21.5	1.77
Montenegro	293.5		13,452	21.82		2.53
Israel	273	205	21,497	12.7	9.54	1.86	[m]
Malta	252.8	198	316	800	627	14.2
Lebanon	225	294	10,230	22.0	28.7	2.22
Romania	225	696	229,891	0.979	3.03	0.469
São Tomé and Príncipe	209	269	964	217	279	6.73
Singapore	193	268	709.2	272	378	7.25
Syria	193	212	185,887	1.04	1.14	0.448
U.S. Virgin Islands	188	390	346	543	1,130	10.1
Mauritius	177	496	2,030	87.2	244	3.93
Congo, Republic of the	169	205	341,500	0.495	0.600	0.289
Bahrain	161	255	760	212	336	5.84
Brunei	161	269	5,265	30.6	51.1	2.22
Cayman Islands	160		264	606		9.85
Isle of Man	160		572	280		6.69
Saint Lucia	158	166	606	261	274	6.42
Antigua and Barbuda	153	289	442.6	346	653	7.27
Dominica	148	152	751	197	202	5.4
Christmas Island	138.9		135	1,030		12
Saint Kitts and Nevis	135		261	517		8.36
Wallis and Futuna	129		142	908		10.8
Guam	125.5		544	231		5.38
Jan Mayen	124.1		377	329		6.39
Benin	121	153	110,622	1.09	1.38	0.364
Grenada	121	252	344	352	733	6.52
Cook Islands	120		236	508		7.81
Saint Pierre and Miquelon	120		242	496		7.71
American Samoa	116		224	518		7.75
Bermuda	103	180	54	1,910	3,330	14
Heard Island and McDonald Islands	101.9		412	247		5.02
Tokelau	101		12	8,420		29.2
Barbados	97	97	430	226	226	4.68
Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha	94		394	239		4.74	[n]
Lithuania	90	258	62,680	1.44	4.12	0.359
United States Pacific Island Wildlife Refuges	85.7		22.41	3,820		18.1	[o]
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	84	264	389	216	679	4.26
Akrotiri and Dhekelia	83.8		253.8	330		5.26	[p]
British Virgin Islands	80		151	530		6.51
Gambia	80	503	10,120	7.91	49.7	0.795
Ashmore and Cartier Islands	74.1		5	14,800		33.1
Jersey	70		116	603		6.5
Aruba	68.5	107	180	381	594	5.11
Belgium	66.5	76	30,278	2.20	2.51	0.382
Niue	64		260	246		3.97
Anguilla	61		91	670		6.39
Saint Martin	58.9		54.4	1,080		7.99	[q]
Iraq	58	105	437,367	0.133	0.240	0.0877
Togo	56	53	54,385	1.03	0.975	0.24
Pitcairn Islands	51		47	1,090		7.44
Guernsey	50		78	641		5.66
Slovenia	46.6	41	20,151	2.31	2.03	0.328
Macau	41	36	28.2	1,450	1,280	7.72
Gaza Strip (Palestine)	40		360	111		2.11
Montserrat	40		102	392		3.96
Congo, Democratic Republic of the	37	177	2,267,048	0.0163	0.0781	0.0246
Norfolk Island	32		36	889		5.33
Nauru	30		21	1,430		6.55
Bouvet Island	29.6		49	604		4.23
Cocos (Keeling) Islands	26		14	1,860		6.95
Jordan	26	27	88,802	0.293	0.304	0.0872	[r]
Tuvalu	24		26	923		4.71
Bosnia and Herzegovina	20	23	51,187	0.391	0.449	0.0884
Wake Island	19.3		6.5	2,970		7.57
Gibraltar	12		6.5	1,850		4.71
Clipperton Island	11.1		6	1,850		4.53
Navassa Island	8		5.4	1,480		3.44
Monaco	4.1		2	2,050		2.9
Saint Barthélemy	NA		25
Sint Maarten	NA		34	0.0147			[s]
South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands	NA		3,903	0.000128
Kazakhstan	0	4,528	2,699,700	0	1.68		[t]
Turkmenistan	0	1,289	469,930	0	2.74		[u]
Azerbaijan	0	871	82,629	0	10.5		[v]
West Bank (Palestine)	0		5,640	0			[w]
Afghanistan	0	0	652,230	0	0
Andorra	0		468	0
Armenia	0	0	28,203	0	0
Austria	0	0	82,445	0	0
Belarus	0	0	202,900	0	0
Bhutan	0	0	38,394	0	0
Bolivia	0	0	1,083,301	0	0
Botswana	0	0	566,730	0	0
Burkina Faso	0	0	273,800	0	0
Burundi	0	0	25,680	0	0
Central African Republic	0	0	622,984	0	0
Chad	0	0	1,259,200	0	0
Czech Republic	0	0	77,247	0	0
Ethiopia	0	0	1,096,570	0	0
Hungary	0	0	89,608	0	0
Kosovo	0		10,887	0
Kyrgyzstan	0	0	191,801	0	0
Laos	0	0	230,800	0	0
Lesotho	0	0	30,355	0	0
Liechtenstein	0		160	0
Luxembourg	0	0	2,586	0	0
Malawi	0	0	94,080	0	0
Mali	0	0	1,220,190	0	0
Moldova	0	0	32,891	0	0
Mongolia	0	0	1,553,556	0	0
Nepal	0	0	143,351	0	0
Niger	0	0	1,266,700	0	0
North Macedonia	0	0	25,433	0	0
Paraguay	0	0	397,302	0	0
Rwanda	0	0	24,668	0	0
San Marino	0		61	0
Serbia	0		77,474	0
Slovakia	0	0	48,105	0	0
South Sudan	0		644,329	0			[p]
Swaziland	0	0	17,204	0	0
Switzerland	0	0	39,997	0	0
Tajikistan	0	0	141,510	0	0
Uganda	0	0	197,100	0	0
Uzbekistan	0	1,707	425,400	0	4.01
Vatican City	0		0.44	0
Zambia	0	0	743,398	0	0
Zimbabwe	0	0	386,847	0	0
French Guiana		763
Guadeloupe		581
Martinique		369
Caribbean Netherlands		361
Réunion		219

See also

• Coastal India
• Coastline of Brazil
• Coastline of China
• Coastline of Malta
• Coastline of New Zealand
• Coastline of the United Kingdom
• Coastline of Western Australia
• List of countries bordering on two or more oceans
• List of U.S. states by coastline

Notes

References

Further reading

• Eric Bird (2011). "1.5 Coastline length". Coastal Geomorphology: An Introduction. John Wiley and Sons. ISBN 978-1-119-96435-3.