Brazil and United States are not historical rivals and have a lot of things in common. One of them is the fact that both countries have continental sizes. But which of them is the largest country? Is Brazil Bigger than the US?
Brazil is not bigger than the United States. Counting Alaska and Hawaii, the total area of the United States is 3.797 million mi², while Brazil’s total area is 3.288 million mi². Therefore, without Alaska, Brazilian territory is bigger than the contiguous United States.
This question is often made by thousands of people, and It’s not by case: both Brazil and the US are between the top 5 largest countries in the world. So, let’s keep digging more into this subject.
For example, if we consider only the contiguous states of the US this scenario changes a little bit, so let’s check it out just for fun. If you’re more of a visual person, go straight to the following infographic that I’ve prepared for you.
Infographic: Is Brazil Bigger Than The United States?
How Big Is The United States Without Alaska?
Alaska alone has more than 600 thousand mi² and is the biggest American state. Even so, is less populated. To be more precise, the size of Alaska in square miles is 663,268. That’s a lot.
To put it on a scale, the size of the state of Alaska is 20 times the size of Portugal. That’s why Alaska is so important in terms of the size of the American territory.
Without Alaska, counting the 48 states and the District of Columbia the total area of the United States is 3.119 million square miles. If it was not for “The Last Frontier” state the United States wasn’t going to be the third-largest country, but the fifth.
Brazil vs US: Top 10 Largest Countries
Check out the top 10 countries considering total land area plus water bodies.
| 1 | Russia | 17,098,242 | 6,601,665 |
| 2 | Canada | 9,984,670 | 3,855,101 |
| 3 | United States | 9,834,314 | 3,797,083 |
| 4 | China | 9,597,000 | 3,705,410 |
| 5 | Brazil | 8,515,767 | 3,287,955 |
| 6 | Australia | 7,692,024 | 2,969,906 |
| 7 | India | 3,287,590 | 1,269,345 |
| 8 | Argentina | 2,780,400 | 1,073,518 |
| 9 | Kazakhstan | 2,724,900 | 1,052,089 |
| 10 | Algeria | 2,381,741 | 919,595 |
Is Brazil Bigger Than The US Not Considering Alaska?
Alaska is part of the United States and so there’s nothing wrong considering it when calculating the biggest countries in the world. But just for fun, let’s compare the US and Brazil without considering Alaska. If we took off the land represented by Alaska, Brazil would be surpassing the United States in the ranking.
Without Alaska, the total size of the United States is 3.119 square miles and as you already know, Brazil’s size in square miles is 3.288 square miles.
In this scenario, China, which is the fourth-largest country would also pass the US in the ranking. This was going to be the top 10 rankings of the largest countries considering only the contiguous states and the District of Columbia of the US:
| 1 | Russia | 17,098,242 | 6,601,665 |
| 2 | Canada | 9,984,670 | 3,855,101 |
| 3 | China | 9,706,961 | 3,747,877 |
| 4 | Brazil | 8,515,767 | 3,287,955 |
| 5 | United States | 8,080,464 | 3,119,884 |
| 6 | Australia | 7,692,024 | 2,969,906 |
| 7 | India | 3,287,590 | 1,269,345 |
| 8 | Argentina | 2,780,400 | 1,073,518 |
| 9 | Kazakhstan | 2,724,900 | 1,052,089 |
| 10 | Algeria | 2,381,741 | 919,595 |
Infographic (BR vs US size)
To give you a more visual understanding of the comparison made so far I’ve put all the information in an infographic.
Now that you already read a lot of helpful information (or maybe you just jumped straight to the funny stuff), you can check it. I have prepared with a lot of whim. Enjoy.
Comparing the Population Size
Another comparison that we can make between sizes involving Brazil and the United States is the population. Both countries are in the top 10 countries with the highest population on the entire planet.
In this comparison, Alaska will not be the game-changer like before. I’m not being disrespectful, please don’t take it this way. I’m only saying that because Alaska is the less-populated state in the US and therefore will not be the state with the most impact on the United States population size. So, let’s check It out.
The United States Population
It’s insane how big the US population is.
The United States has the third-most populated country on the planet, with a population of about 332 million people.
To most-populated states of America are California, Texas, and Florida, with a respective population of 39, 29, and 21 million people.
The only two places on earth that are most-populated than the United States are India and China whose populations surpass 1 billion each. That’s crazy.
But what about Brazil? I love when I can use the name of my site in the text 🙂
What Is Brazil’s Population?
Brazil’s is also one of the most-populated countries on earth:
According to the last census done in the country, Brazil’s population is 221 million people.
The most populated Brazilian state is São Paulo, with more than 46 million inhabitants. That’s a lot even considering big concentrations of people like the state of California for example, which has 39,51 million inhabitants.
If São Paulo was a country, it would be the position 31 on the ranking of the highest population. The second and third most populated states in Brazil are Minas Gerais, with 21 million, and Rio de Janeiro (the state) with a population of about 17 million people.
For those of you that don’t know, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro are Brazilian states that have cities with the same name. Kinda what happens with NY state and city. The only difference is that in Brazil the cities of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro are the capital of their states
Top ten countries with the highest population
After this motherload of information about country’s sizes, populations, and states that could easily be countries, I want to list some final information for you guys. The updated ranking of the top 10 countries with the highest population.
Another cool thing about this ranking is that it includes the expected population of these countries and the entire world for 2050.
| TOP TEN COUNTRIES WITH THE HIGHEST POPULATION | |||||
| # | Country | 2000 Population | 2021 Population | 2050 Expected Pop. | Pop Growth % 2000 – 2021 |
| 1 | China | 1,268,301,605 | 1,444,216,107 | 1,329,570,095 | 13.8 % |
| 2 | India | 1,006,300,297 | 1,393,409,038 | 1,623,588,384 | 38.5 % |
| 3 | United States | 282,162,411 | 332,129,757 | 388,922,201 | 17.7 % |
| 4 | Indonesia | 214,090,575 | 276,361,783 | 318,393,046 | 29.1 % |
| 5 | Pakistan | 152,429,036 | 225,199,937 | 290,847,790 | 47.7 % |
| 6 | Brazil | 174,315,386 | 213,993,437 | 236,030,311 | 22.7 % |
| 7 | Nigeria | 123,945,463 | 211,400,708 | 391,296,754 | 70.5 % |
| 8 | Bangladesh | 128,734,672 | 166,303,498 | 193,092,763 | 29.2 % |
| 9 | Russia | 147,053,966 | 145,912,025 | 129,908,086 | – 0.8 % |
| 10 | Mexico | 99,775,434 | 130,262,216 | 150,567,503 | 30.5 % |
| TOP TEN Countries | 3,597,108,845 | 4,539,188,506 | 5,044,709,268 | 26.2 % | |
| Rest of the World | 2,466,224,955 | 3,336,577,078 | 4,329,774,957 | 35.3 % | |
| TOTAL World Population | 6,063,333,800 | 7,875,765,584 | 9,374,484,225 | 26.9 % | |
This ranking was found on internetworldstats.com so shoutout and huge thanks to you guys for the amazing job.
Final Considerations
Guys, it was a lot of information. This article took some time to write but I’m very excited to be sharing helpful content with you.
I hope that this article finishes all your doubts about the size of Brazil (land and population) in comparison with the United States. I’ve put a lot of effort trying to get the best information around.
Also, the infographic took a lot of time, but I’m very happy with the result: it totally worthed.
If you liked this content and think that It may help someone, feel free to share or/and leave a comment. Also, check more whataboutbrazil.com articles for incredible articles about Brazil, including facts, food, travel, and much more.
Thanks a lot and I see you next time.
