Largest Countries in Asia 2026

With a total land area of 31,105,763 km² (12,009,997 mi²), Asia is far and away the largest continent on Earth. Asia features a wide range of biomes and climates, from the frigid tundra of Siberia in Russia to the deserts of Saudi Arabia to the equatorial jungles of Indonesia. What are the largest countries in Asia? The answer to that question is not entirely straightforward. Asia includes 45 sovereign states that are fully recognized by the United Nations, as well as several non-country territories such as Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, and Palestine, and four transcontinental countries (Russia, Egypt, Cyprus, and Turkey) that have land in Asia but are typically counted as European or African. This is important because two of those transcontinental countries, Russia and Turkey, are the first and tenth largest on the continent when counted as Asian. The list below shows them (marked with an *) in relation to Asia’s “proper” top 10 largest countries.

Top 12 Largest Countries in Asia by Land Area (United Nations)

Whether grouped with Asia or Europe, Russia tops any list of the world’s largest countries by area, being nearly twice the size of the next closest country. The order of the next three countries, Canada, the United States, and China, varies a bit depending upon two variables. First, whether the ranking counts land area or total area, which also includes certain bodies of water such as rivers, lakes, and coastal waters. And second, whether China’s area should include only the mainland or also its territory Taiwan and Special Administrative Regions Hong Kong and Macau, all three of which would likely be independent countries if not for China’s influence at the United Nations.

Asia is also the globe’s most populous continent thanks to the presence of China (pop. 1,444,216,107) and India (pop. 1,393,409,038), the world’s two most heavily populated countries. Together, these two countries accounted for just over 36% of the world’s total population in 2021. In fact, when ordered in terms of population instead of land area, the list of largest countries in Asia shifts considerably:

Top 13 Largest Countries in Asia by Population (United Nations 2021)

Asia also includes several of the world’s smallest countries. The smallest nation in Asia is Macau, a non-sovereign “Special Administrative Region” claimed by China. Due to its connections with China, Macau is not always considered a fully fledged country. But when it is, it is also the eighth smallest country in the world. Macau squeezes a population of roughly 682,800 into a tiny total area of 33 km² (13 mi²).