United States, Europe and the Pacific Ocean Are Bigger Than You Might Think

Superfact 11: United States, Europe and the Pacific Ocean Are Bigger Than You Might Think

  • The area of the United States is around 9,8 million square kilometers
  • The area of continental United States is around 8.1 million square kilometers
  • The area of Europe is around 10.2 million square kilometers
  • Earth’s total land area is 148.9 million square kilometers
  • The area of the Pacific Ocean is 165.3 million square kilometers
  • The area of the whole earth is 510 million square kilometers

The United States

The United States is much bigger than many Europeans think. Europe is much bigger than many Americans think. Many of us don’t realize that one of the five oceans, the Pacific Ocean, is one third of earth’s entire surface and cover a larger area than all landmass on earth. Since so many of us are surprised to hear these facts and they are not under dispute among experts, they constitute a super-fact, or a few super-facts in my opinion.

Map of the United States. Alaska and Hawaii are not to scale. Alaska is double as big as Texas. Stock Vector ID: 2247501877 by HazimAlfi.

Some time ago I was talking to a Swedish friend of mine who told me something along the lines of “the United States isn’t so big as they say. We drove through half a dozen states in an afternoon.” I asked her, “which states?” It turns out that was the New England states, Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and finally New Jersey and New York (New York city). You can do that drive in an afternoon, but you cannot drive through Texas in an afternoon, not even in a day.

The distance from Texarkana to El Paso is 1,300 kilometers and takes more than 12 hours to drive on the highway without stopping. I’ve come across many Europeans who underestimate the size of the United States. The mistake they make is that they don’t realize that while some US states are small, other states are much bigger. Just look at the map.

Political map of Europe (including European Russia) Stock Vector ID: 319593110 by okili77.

Europe

Interestingly Americans often make the same mistake about Europe. I quite often hear Americans claim that distances are so small in Europe. You can drive through a country in a couple of hours and the language changes. It’s a trope that seems to be repeated every time Europe is discussed on social networks.

Today, as I was talking to a friend of mine about our recent trip to Sweden and Norway, my friend told me that it was good that distances in Europe were so short so we could easily travel between the places I was telling him about. He was more than surprised to hear that was not the case.  The distance between where we were Sweden and Norway was too large for anything other than planes considering we only had 10 days.

The distance from Malmö in southern Sweden to Karesuando in northern Sweden is more than 1,900 kilometers and takes more than 21 hours to drive without stopping. In fact, by area, Sweden is bigger and longer than California. 

The Pacific Ocean

Last but not least. Earth has seven continents (Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia), and five oceans (the Arctic, Atlantic, Indian, Pacific, and Southern (Antarctic) Oceans). But just one ocean, the Pacific Ocean cover a third of earth’s entire surface. This may come as a surprise to many. See the globe photorealistic 3d illustration below.

Earth Pacific Ocean view Stock Illustration ID: 1617553012 by Matis75.

To see the other Super Facts click here

Author: thomasstigwikman

My name is Thomas Wikman. I am a software/robotics engineer with a background in physics. I am currently retired. I took early retirement. I am a dog lover, and especially a Leonberger lover, a home brewer, craft beer enthusiast, I’m learning French, and I am an avid reader. I live in Dallas, Texas, but I am originally from Sweden. I am married to Claudia, and we have three children. I have two blogs. The first feature the crazy adventures of our Leonberger Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle as well as information on Leonbergers. The second blog, superfactful, feature information and facts I think are very interesting. With this blog I would like to create a list of facts that are accepted as true among the experts of the field and yet disputed amongst the public or highly surprising. These facts are special and in lieu of a better word I call them super-facts.

24 thoughts on “United States, Europe and the Pacific Ocean Are Bigger Than You Might Think”

  2. An informative post, Thomas. I know how big the USA is, I can judge from the map even though I haven’t visited. I know how big South Africa is. We drive at least 14 hours to get to Cape Town. I know how big Europe is. Europe is also densely populated so travelling is difficult by car. When we travelled from Heathrow to York it took much longer than the GPS said because of traffic and narrow roads. The same thing happened when we travelled from Edinburgh to Nottingham. We arrived very late.

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    1. I am not surprised you know these things but many people don’t, and are even surprised or doubtful when they hear it. My friend was taken back by the fact that driving from one place to another in Scandinavia was not possible to do in one day. He thought everything was small and close. Then my Swedish friend had a hard believing that driving though the US (as opposed to New England) takes at least a few days. I know south Africa is double as big as Texas and all of Africa is three times larger than the United States and three times larger than Europe. Something that surprises both Europeans and Americans.

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    1. Yes you are so right Gwen. It is so easy to believe things that aren’t correct and then it may be difficult accept the true information, but it is healthy to be curious and learn new things. Thank you so much for your kind words.

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  4. Thankfully, as someone who loves geography (and history), as well as some travel experience, I am one of those Americans who know that Europe is a large continent and that the Pacific covers one-third of the Earth. It never ceases to amaze me, though, that many people around the world (but particularly in the U.S.) don’t really know much about the world or other countries.

    Great Super-Facts post!

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    1. Yes you are right. It is a very long drive and this surpises Europeans. On the other hand it surprises many Texans that the drive from Dallas to Phoenix is significantly shorter than the one from south Sweden to north Sweden. That’s the kind of distances I have to deal with when visiting my old country. I am from north Sweden.

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  8. Pingback: Super Fact Page Added to Superfactful – Leonberger Life

        1. As they say in baseball, “Good Eye”. It is a very useful skill that is useful in software engineering too. When something is wrong with the code it can be difficult to see it, even if it is obvious. That’s why they have code reviews. A group of people scan the code to see if there’s something weird somewhere.

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