Largest Countries in Europe by Area

Europe is the world’s second smallest continent. The area is 10,180,000 square kilometers, which represents 6.8 per cent of the land area.

The highest mountain is Elbrus, 5633 meters above sea level. The lowest point is the Caspian Sea beach, 28 meters below sea level. The longest river is Volga with 3685 kilometers, and the largest lake is Ladoga at 18 180 square kilometers.

The name Europe is of uncertain origin and significance, and may be Greek. In the 600’s before our era (BCE), it was used as a designation in places in Central Greece. One of several explanations is that Europe is a Semitic word for sunset, in Hebrew “erab”, “evening land”.

States and territories

Europe is often divided into the regions of Western Europe, Northern Europe, Central Europe, Central Europe, Eastern Europe and Southern Europe, and is divided into 48 states and one territory (Gibraltar). 12 states are monarchies, the others are republics.

Abkhazia, Nagorno-Karabakh, Northern Cyprus, South Ossetia and Transnistria are de facto independent with little or no international recognition.

Biggest European Countries by Land Area

Below is a list of all the European countries, in order of land area size. Russia is the biggest country while Nauru is the smallest one.

Rank	Country Name	Land Area (km²)	Density
1	Russia	16,377,742	8.96
2	Turkey	769,632	106.55
3	France	640,427	104.61
4	Ukraine	579,300	72.64
5	Spain	498,980	93.66
6	Sweden	410,335	25.01
7	Germany	348,672	237.99
8	Poland	311,888	123.16
9	Norway	304,282	17.53
10	Finland	303,815	18.16
11	Italy	294,140	205.26
12	United Kingdom	241,930	272.97
13	Romania	231,291	84.41
14	Belarus	202,900	46.65
15	Greece	130,647	82.22
16	Bulgaria	108,489	64.52
17	Iceland	100,250	3.58
18	Portugal	91,470	112.35
19	Hungary	89,608	108.96
20	Serbia	88,246	79.34
21	Austria	82,445	107.58
22	Czech Republic	77,247	137.91
23	Ireland	68,883	70.51
24	Lithuania	62,680	44.53
25	Latvia	62,249	30.76
26	Croatia	55,974	73.79
27	Bosnia and Herzegovina	51,187	64.49
28	Slovakia	48,105	113.3
29	Denmark	42,434	136.95
30	Estonia	42,388	31.25
31	Switzerland	39,997	213.57
32	Netherlands	33,893	511.19
33	Moldova	32,891	107.86
34	Belgium	30,278	378.74
35	Albania	27,398	104.48
36	North Macedonia	25,433	81.6
37	Slovenia	20,151	103.27
38	Montenegro	13,452	46.26
39	Luxembourg	2,586	237.39
40	Andorra	468	162.75
41	Malta	316	1,505.35
42	Liechtenstein	160	239.81
43	San Marino	61	547.72
44	Monaco	2.02	18,954.95
45	Holy See	0.44	1,790.91

European Location

The whole of Europe’s border with Asia is not firmly defined. The Ural Mountains are considered a clear boundary to the east. The boundary further can be drawn at the northwest border of Kazakhstan, the northwest bank of the Caspian Sea, the Great Caucasus, and the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles. In the south, the Mediterranean and the Gibraltar Strait form a divide towards Africa. In the west, Europe borders the Atlantic, the Norwegian Sea, the Danish Strait and the Greenland Sea. In the north, from west to east, Europe borders the Arctic Ocean,Barents Sea and Cara Sea.

Europe is the westernmost part of Eurasia, west of Asia. Europe’s largest stretch east-west is approximately 5,000 kilometers and the largest stretch north-south is approximately 4250 kilometers. The area is approximately 31 times larger than Norway’s area.

Europe’s northernmost point is the northern tip of Frans Josef’s land in Russia. The northernmost point on the mainland is Kinnarodden on the North Kinn Peninsula in Finnmark. The southernmost point is the island of Gavdos south of Crete ; on mainland Punta de Tarifa in Spain. The westernmost point is Fajã Grande on the island of Flores in the Azores; on mainland Cabo da Roca in Portugal. Europe’s easternmost point is Mys Flissinski (Cape Flissingsky) on Novaja Zemlja in Russia; on the mainland an unnamed peak in the Ural Mountains.

Europe can be considered as a strongly cut peninsula on the Eurasian continent. The continent is characterized by large peninsulas with the Scandinavian peninsula, the Pyrenees peninsula (Iberian peninsula), the Balkan peninsula and the Kola peninsula as the largest. About a quarter of Europe’s area is peninsula. The peninsula and the intersections mean that most European countries have a relatively short distance to the sea. To the south are the Mediterranean, Black and Caspian islands.

There are several major inlets such as the Aegean, the Bay of Biscay and the Baltic Sea with the Bothnian Sea.

A number of large islands belong to Europe, including Spitsbergen, Iceland, the British Isles, Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily and Crete, but the island of the Republic of Cyprus is listed in the lexicon under Asia.

Europe’s total coastline is approximately 78,000 kilometers.