Reference · 6 min read
🏝️ The 10 Smallest Countries in the World (By Area)
Vatican City to Malta — meet the world's tiniest sovereign nations and the unique stories behind each.
Most "smallest country" lists get the order wrong. Here's the actual top 10 by land area.
1. Vatican City — 0.49 km² The world's smallest country sits inside Rome and is home to about 800 people. The Pope is the head of state.
2. Monaco — 2 km² A French Riviera city-state famous for its casino, royal family, and tax policies. Population density is the world's highest.
3. Nauru — 21 km² A Pacific island that briefly became the world's richest country per capita in the 1970s thanks to phosphate mining — and one of the poorest after the deposits ran out.
4. Tuvalu — 26 km² Nine atolls in the South Pacific. Earns significant revenue from its .tv internet domain.
5. San Marino — 61 km² The world's oldest republic, founded in 301 AD. Completely surrounded by Italy.
6. Liechtenstein — 160 km² A Germanic-speaking principality between Switzerland and Austria. One of only two doubly landlocked countries (the other is Uzbekistan).
7. Marshall Islands — 181 km² A Pacific nation of 1,200+ islands and atolls.
8. Saint Kitts and Nevis — 261 km² The smallest sovereign state in the Western Hemisphere. Famous citizenship-by-investment program.
9. Maldives — 298 km² Famous for resorts, and the lowest-lying country in the world. Climate change is an existential threat.
10. Malta — 316 km² A Mediterranean archipelago with one of the densest histories per square kilometer anywhere.
Bonus: People often mistakenly include the Order of Malta or Sealand — neither is a UN-recognized country.