List of countries by length of coastline

An example of the coastline paradox. If the coastline of Britain is measured using a scale interval of 200 km (left), then the length of the coastline is about 2400 km. Using a scale interval of 50 km (right), the length of the coastline is about 3400 km.

This article contains two lists of countries by length of coastline, in kilometers. A coastline of zero indicates that the country is landlocked.

Overview

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.^{[Note 1]} This "magnifying" effect is greater for convoluted coastlines than for relatively smooth ones. Treated as fractals, coastlines can however be measured. For example, the coast of Great Britain has a size of about 28000 km^1.43, which is called its Hausdorff measure.^[1]

• 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 coastline measurement. This ratio measures how many meters 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 Wold 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 kilometers. 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."^[2]

List

Country	The World Factbook[3]		World Resources Institute[2]		Land Area km² (TWF)[4]	Coast/area ratio (m/km²)
	#	km	#	km		(TWF)	(WRI)
World[Note 2]	—	1,162,306	—	1,634,701	148,940,000	7.80	11.0
other[Note 3]	—	356,000
Canada	1	202,080	1	265,523	9,984,670	20.2	26.6
Indonesia	2	54,716	4	95,181	1,811,569	30.2	52.5
Greenland[Note 4]	—	44,087			2,166,086	20.4
Russia	3	37,653	3	110,310	16,377,742	2.30	6.74
Philippines	4	36,289	8	33,900	298,170	122	114
Japan	5	29,751	12	29,020	364,485	81.6	79.6
Australia	6	25,760	6	66,530	7,682,300	3.35	8.66
Norway	7	25,148[Note 5]	7	53,199	304,282	82.6	175
United States	8	19,924	2	133,312	9,161,966	2.17	14.6
Antarctica	—	17,968			14,000,000	1.28
New Zealand	9	15,134	17	17,209	267,710[5]	56.5	64.3
China	10	14,500	11	30,017	9,569,901	1.52	3.14
Greece	11	13,676	19	15,147	131,957	104	115
United Kingdom	12	12,429	16	19,717	241,930	51.4	81.5
Mexico	13	9,330	14	23,761	1,943,945	4.80	12.2
Italy	14	7,600	28	9,226	294,140	25.8	31.4
Brazil	15	7,491	9	33,379	8,459,417	0.886	3.95
Denmark	16	7,314	44	5,316	42,434	172	125
Turkey	17	7,200	31	8,140	783,562	9.19	10.4
India	18	7,000	18	17,181	2,973,193	2.35	5.78
Chile	19	6,435	5	78,563	743,812	8.65	106
Croatia	20	6,268[6]	42	5,664	55,974	112	101
Micronesia, Federated States of	21	6,112	92	1,295	702	8,710	1,840
Solomon Islands	22	5,313	26	9,880	27,986	190	353
Papua New Guinea	23	5,152	15	20,197	452,860	11.4	44.6
Argentina	24	4,989	30	8,397	2,736,690	1.82	3.07
Iceland	25	4,970	29	8,506	100,250	49.6	84.8
Spain[Note 6]	26	4,964	34	7,268	498,980	9.95	14.6
Metropolitan France	27	4,853	33	7,330	640,427	7.58	11.4
Madagascar	28	4,828	25	9,935	581,540	8.30	17.1
Malaysia	29	4,675	27	9,323	328,657	14.2	28.4
Estonia	30	3,794	61	2,956	42,388	89.5	69.7
Cuba	31	3,735	21	14,519	109,820	34.0	132
Svalbard	—	3,587			62,045	57.8
Bahamas, The	32	3,542	24	11,238	10,010	354	1,120
Vietnam	33	3,444[Note 7]	23	11,409	310,070	11.1	36.8
Thailand	34	3,219	35	7,066	510,890	6.30	13.8
Sweden	35	3,218	13	26,384	410,335	7.84	64.3
Colombia	36	3,208	41	5,875	1,038,700	3.09	5.66
Coral Sea Islands	—	3,095			<3	>1,000,000
Somalia	37	3,333	50	3,898	627,337	5.31	6.21
Iran	38	3,294[Note 8]	40	5,891	1,636,100	1.59	3.85
French Southern and Antarctic Lands	—	2,948.4[Note 9]			7,667.6	385
Venezuela	39	2,800	37	6,762	882,050	3.17	7.67
South Africa	40	2,798	51	3,751	1,214,470	2.30	3.09
Ukraine	41	2,782	45	4,953	579,330	4.80	8.55
Saudi Arabia	42	2,640	32	7,572	2,149,690	1.23	3.52
Vanuatu	43	2,528	59	3,132	12,189	207	257
French Polynesia	—	2,525	—	5,830	3,827	660	1,520
Korea, North	44	2,495	49	4,009	120,408	20.7	33.3
Panama	45	2,490	43	5,637	74,340	33.5	75.8
Mozambique	46	2,470	36	6,942	786,380	3.14	8.83
Egypt	47	2,450	39	5,898	995,450	2.46	5.92
Peru	48	2,414	55	3,362	1,279,996	1.89	2.63
Korea, South	49	2,413	22	12,478	96,920	24.9	129
Germany	50	2,389	52	3,624	348,672	6.85	10.4
New Caledonia	—	2,254	—	3,624	18,275	123	198
Ecuador	51	2,237	47	4,597	276,841	8.08	16.6
Eritrea	52	2,234[6]	54	3,446	101,000	22.1	34.1
Oman	53	2,092	65	2,810	309,500	6.76	9.08
Burma	54	1,930	20	14,708	653,508	2.95	22.5
Yemen	55	1,906	58	3,149	527,968	3.61	5.96
Morocco	56	1,835	73	2,009	446,300	4.11	4.50
Portugal	57	1,793	63	2,830	91,470	19.6	30.9
Haiti	58	1,771	77	1,977	27,560	64.3	71.7
Libya	59	1,770	71	2,025	1,759,540	1.01	1.15
Angola	60	1,600	67	2,252	1,246,700	1.28	1.81
Namibia	61	1,572	84	1,754	823,290	1.91	2.13
Taiwan	62	1,566.3	74	2,007	32,260	48.6	62.2
Palau	63	1,519			459	3,310
Northern Mariana Islands	—	1,482			464	3,190
Ireland	64	1,448	38	6,437	68,883	21.0	93.4
Tanzania	65	1,424	53	3,461	885,800	1.61	3.91
Sri Lanka	66	1,340	64	2,825	64,630	20.7	43.7
United Arab Emirates	67	1,318	62	2,871	83,600	15.8	34.3
Costa Rica	68	1,290	70	2,069	51,060	25.3	40.5
Dominican Republic	69	1,288	88	1,612	48,320	26.7	33.4
Falkland Islands	—	1,288			12,173	106
Finland	70	1,250	10	31,119	303,815	4.11	102
Tunisia	71	1,148	79	1,927	155,360	7.39	12.4
Kiribati	72	1,143	78	1,961	811	1,410	2,420
Fiji	73	1,129	46	4,638	18,274	61.8	254
Faroe Islands	—	1,117			1,393	802
Western Sahara	—	1,110			266,000	4.17
Pakistan	74	1,046	66	2,599	881,912	1.19	2.95
Jamaica	75	1,022	102	895	10,831	94.4	82.6
Algeria	76	998	90	1,557	2,381,741	0.419	0.654
Cape Verde	77	965	97	1,121	4,033	239	278
Spratly Islands	—	926			<5	>200,000
Nicaragua	78	910	80	1,915	119,990	7.58	16.0
Gabon	79	885	72	2,019	257,667	3.43	7.84
Nigeria	80	853	60	3,122	910,768	0.937	3.43
Sudan	80	853	68	2,245	1,861,484[5]	0.458	1.21
Honduras	82	832[Note 10]	82	1,878	111,890	7.44	16.8
Mauritania	83	754	94	1,268	1,030,700	0.732	1.23
Hong Kong	—	733	—	955	1,054	695	906
Timor-Leste	84	706			14,874	47.5
British Indian Ocean Territory	—	698			60	11,600
Uruguay	85	660	98	1,096	175,015	3.77	6.26
Cyprus	86	648	112	671	9,241	70.1	72.6
Maldives	87	644	75	2,002	298	2,160	6,720
Bangladesh	88	580	56	3,306	130,168	4.46	25.4
Liberia	89	579	104	842	96,320	6.01	8.74
Qatar	90	563	100	909	11,586	48.6	78.5
Ghana	91	539	106	758	227,533	2.37	3.33
Kenya	92	536	89	1,586	569,140	0.942	2.79
Senegal	93	531	91	1,327	192,530	2.76	6.89
Paracel Islands	—	518			7.75	66,800
Côte d'Ivoire	94	515	105	797	318,003	1.62	2.51
Puerto Rico	—	501	—	1,094	8,870	56.5	123
Kuwait	95	499	107	756	17,818	28.0	42.4
Latvia	96	498	116	566	62,249	8.00	9.09
Seychelles	97	491	109	747	455	1,080	1,640
Guyana	98	459	95	1,154	196,849	2.33	5.86
Netherlands	99	451[Note 11]	81	1,914	33,893	13.3	56.5
Cambodia	100	443	96	1,127	176,515	2.51	6.38
Poland	101	440	99	1,032	312,679	1.41	3.30
Tonga	102	419	101	909	717	584	1,270
Samoa	103	403	120	463	2,821	143	164
Cameroon	104	402	83	1,799	469,440	0.856	3.83
Sierra Leone	104	402	86	1,677	71,620	5.61	23.4
Guatemala	106	400	122	445	107,159	3.73	4.15
Turks and Caicos Islands	—	389			948	410
Belize	107	386	76	1,996	22,806	16.9	87.5
Suriname	107	386	114	620	156,000	2.47	3.97
Marshall Islands	109	370.4	69	2,106	181	2,050	11,600
Curacao	—	364			444	820
Albania	110	362	113	649	27,398	13.2	23.7
Trinidad and Tobago	110	362	110	704	5,128	70.6	137
Bulgaria	112	354	121	457	108,489	3.26	4.21
Guinea-Bissau	113	350	57	3,176	28,120	12.4	113
Comoros	114	340	119	469	2,235	152	210
Guinea	115	320	87	1,615	245,717	1.30	6.57
Djibouti	116	314	123	443	23,180	13.5	19.1
Georgia	117	310	124	376	69,700	4.45	5.39
El Salvador	118	307	108	756	20,721	14.8	36.5
Equatorial Guinea	119	296	115	603	28,051	10.6	21.5
Montenegro	120	293.5			13,452	21.8
Israel	121	273	136	205	20,330	13.4	10.1
Lebanon	122	225	125	294	10,230	22.0	28.7
Romania	122	225	111	696	229,891	0.979	3.03
São Tomé and Príncipe	124	209	128	269	964	217	279
Malta	125	252.81	137	198	316	800	627
Singapore	126	193	129	268	687	281	390
Syria	126	193	134	212	183,630	1.05	1.15
U.S. Virgin Islands	—	188	—	390	346	543	1,130
Mauritius	128	177	118	496	2,030	87.2	244
Congo, Republic of the	129	169	135	205	341,500	0.495	0.600
Bahrain	130	161	132	255	760	212	336
Brunei	130	161	127	269	5,265	30.6	51.1
Cayman Islands	—	160			264	606
Isle of Man	—	160			572	280
Saint Lucia	132	158	139	166	606	261	274
Antigua and Barbuda	133	153	126	289	442.6	346	653
Dominica	134	148	141	152	751	197	202
Christmas Island	—	138.9			135	1,030
Saint Kitts and Nevis	135	135			261	517
Wallis and Futuna	—	129			142	908
Guam	—	125.5			544	231
Jan Mayen	—	124.1			377	329
Benin	136	121	140	153	110,622	1.09	1.38
Grenada	136	121	133	252	344	352	733
Cook Islands	138	120			236	508
Saint Pierre and Miquelon	—	120			242	496
American Samoa	—	116			199	583
Bermuda	—	103	—	180	54	1,910	3,330
Heard Island and McDonald Islands	—	101.9			412	247
Tokelau	—	101			12	8,420
Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha	—	100[Note 12]			308	325
Barbados	139	97	143	97	430	226	226
Lithuania	140	90	131	258	62,680	1.44	4.12
United States Pacific Island Wildlife Refuges	—	85.7			22.41	3,820
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	141	84	130	264	389	216	679
Akrotiri and Dhekelia	—	83.8			253.8[5]	330
British Virgin Islands	—	80			151	530
Gambia	142	80	117	503	10,000	8.00	50.3
Ashmore and Cartier Islands	—	74.1			5	14,800
Jersey	—	70			116	603
Aruba	—	68.5	—	107	180	381	594
Belgium	143	66.5	144	76	30,278	2.20	2.51
Niue	144	64			260	246
Anguilla	—	61			91	670
Saint Martin	—	58.9[Note 13]			54.4	1,080
Iraq	145	58	142	105	437,367	0.133	0.240
Togo	146	56	145	53	54,385	1.03	0.975
Pitcairn Islands	—	51			47	1,090
Guernsey	—	50			78	641
Slovenia	147	46.6	146	41	20,151	2.31	2.03
Macau	—	41	—	36	28.2	1,450	1,280
Gaza Strip	—	40			360	111
Montserrat	—	40			102	392
Congo, Democratic Republic of the	148	37	138	177	2,267,048	0.0163	0.0781
Norfolk Island	—	32			36	889
Nauru	149	30			21	1,430
Bouvet Island	—	29.6			49	604
Cocos (Keeling) Islands	—	26			14	1,860
Jordan	150	26	147	27	88,802	0.293	0.304
Tuvalu	151	24			26	923
Bosnia and Herzegovina	152	20	148	23	51,187	0.391	0.449
Wake Island	—	19.3			6.5	2,970
Gibraltar	—	12			6.5	1,850
Clipperton Island	—	11.1			6	1,850
Navassa Island	—	8			5.4	1,480
Monaco	153	4.1			2	2,050
Saint Barthelemy	— NA	NA			21
Sint Maarten	—	NA[Note 14]			34	0.0147
South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands	—	NA			3,903	0.000128
Kazakhstan	154	0[Note 15]	48	4,528	2,699,700	0	1.68
Turkmenistan	154	0[Note 16]	93	1,289	469,930	0	2.74
Azerbaijan	154	0[Note 17]	103	871	82,629	0	10.5
Uzbekistan	154	0[Note 18]	85	1,707	425,400	0	4.01
Afghanistan	154	0	149	0	652,230	0	0
Andorra	154	0			468	0
Armenia	154	0	149	0	28,203	0	0
Austria	154	0	149	0	82,445	0	0
Belarus	154	0	149	0	202,900	0	0
Bhutan	154	0	149	0	38,394	0	0
Bolivia	154	0	149	0	1,083,301	0	0
Botswana	154	0	149	0	566,730	0	0
Burkina Faso	154	0	149	0	273,800	0	0
Burundi	154	0	149	0	25,680	0	0
Central African Republic	154	0	149	0	622,984	0	0
Chad	154	0	149	0	1,259,200	0	0
Czech Republic	154	0	149	0	77,247	0	0
Ethiopia	154	0	149	0	1,000,000	0	0
Hungary	154	0	149	0	89,608	0	0
Kyrgyzstan	154	0	149	0	191,801	0	0
Laos	154	0	149	0	230,800	0	0
Lesotho	154	0	149	0	30,355	0	0
Liechtenstein	154	0			160	0
Luxembourg	154	0	149	0	2,586	0	0
Macedonia, Republic of	154	0	149	0	25,433	0	0
Malawi	154	0	149	0	94,080	0	0
Mali	154	0	149	0	1,220,190	0	0
Moldova	154	0	149	0	32,891	0	0
Mongolia	154	0	149	0	1,553,556	0	0
Nepal	154	0	149	0	143,351	0	0
Niger	154	0	149	0	1,266,700	0	0
Paraguay	154	0	149	0	397,302	0	0
Rwanda	154	0	149	0	24,668	0	0
San Marino	154	0			61	0
Serbia	154	0			88,361	0
Slovakia	154	0	149	0	48,105	0	0
South Sudan	154	0			644,329[5]	0
Swaziland	154	0	149	0	17,204	0	0
Switzerland	154	0	149	0	39,997	0	0
Tajikistan	154	0	149	0	141,510	0	0
Uganda	154	0	149	0	197,100	0	0
Vatican City	154	0			0.44	0
West Bank	—	0			5,640	0
Zambia	154	0	149	0	743,398	0	0
Zimbabwe	154	0	149	0	386,847	0	0
French Guiana			—	763
Guadeloupe			—	581
Martinique			—	369
Netherlands Antilles			—	361
Réunion			—	219

See also

• 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

1. The smaller the scale interval mathematically, the more detailed and the "greater the scale of the map", in common usage. See scale (map).
2. World total includes countries not listed and coastline for disputed areas.
3. 95 nations and other entities are islands that border no other countries. For list, see reference below: "CIA World Factbook: Coastline".
4. Greenland is an autonomous country within Denmark.
5. According to the Norwegian Mapping Authority (NMA), the Norwegian coastline, including fjords, islands and Svalbard, is as much as 100,915 km. Source: NMA. Statistics Norway report the same figures Land area and length of coastline.
6. Includes coastline length for the Canary Islands.
7. Excludes minor outlying islands.
8. Iran has an additional 784 km of coastline along the Caspian Sea, which is landlocked and Including 30 islands in the South and North Islands.
9. Does not include Ile Saint-Paul and Iles Crozet (data unavailable) or Adelie Land claim to Antarctica.
10. Includes coastline in the Gulf of Fonseca (163 km).
11. In 1900, the Dutch coastline measured approximately 1400 km. It has significantly been reduced by the closing of the Zuiderzee by the Afsluitdijk in 1932 (250 km) and the closing of several sea arms by the Delta Works (700 km).
12. Excluding Ascension Island (data unavailable).
13. Figure represents coastline of entire island, including Sint Maarten (administered by the Netherlands).
14. Coastline included in figure for Saint Martin (administered by France).
15. Kazakhstan has a coastline with the Aral and Caspian seas (both landlocked) with a total length of 2,964 km.
16. Turkmenistan has a coastline with the Caspian Sea, which is landlocked, with a total length of 1,768 km.
17. Azerbaijan has a 713-km coastline along the Caspian Sea, which is landlocked.
18. Uzbekistan has a 420-km coastline along the Aral Sea, which is landlocked.

References

1. Measuring the Size of Britains Coast (German): https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/62/K%C3%BCstenl%C3%A4nge_Gro%C3%9Fbritanniens.pdf
2. "Coastal and Marine Ecosystems — Marine Jurisdictions: Coastline length". World Resources Institute. Archived from the original on 2012-04-19. Retrieved 2012-03-18.
3. CIA World Factbook: Coastline
4. CIA World Factbook: Area
5. Figure represents total area rather than land area.
6. Includes coastline of minor outlying islands.

Further reading

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