How Big is Turkey Compared to the United States? A Detailed Size Comparison

When looking at a standard map, it can be hard to truly comprehend the immense size differences between countries around the world. Maps can distort our perception through their projections, making some places appear much larger or smaller than they really are.

One interesting size comparison is between the United States and Turkey. At first glance, the United States appears far larger on most maps. But just how much bigger is it in reality? Let’s take a detailed look at how the sizes of these two countries truly stack up.

Basic Facts and Figures

First, some quick facts on the basic sizes of the United States and Turkey:

• The United States has a total area of 9,833,517 square km. Turkey has a total area of 783,562 square km.

• This means the United States is approximately 125 times larger than Turkey in sheer land area

• The United States ranks 3rd in the world in size, while Turkey ranks 37th.

So at a basic level, we can see that the United States is clearly far bigger than Turkey But it’s hard to really grasp that difference without seeing it visually.

Visualizing the Size Difference

When we overlay an outline of Turkey directly over a true-size map of the United States the size difference really comes into focus

• Turkey stretches from Chicago to Charleston covering parts of the Midwestern and Southeastern United States.

• The area covered by Turkey is approximately equal to the combined area of the states of Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, Iowa, and Illinois.

• Only the western half of Turkey fits over the United States, with the eastern half overflowing past the east coast into the Atlantic Ocean.

• Major U.S. cities like New York City, Washington D.C, Atlanta, Denver, and Los Angeles all lie outside the boundaries of Turkey’s overlay.

• Turkey covers only 7.97% of the total land area of the United States.

When you look at that visual overlay, it really drives home the point that the United States is massively larger than Turkey in terms of pure size and land area.

Comparing Other Attributes

In addition to basic land area, we can also compare the two countries in terms of other attributes:

Population

• The United States has a population of about 331 million.

• Turkey has a population of about 84 million.

• So the United States population is almost 4 times larger than Turkey’s.

Economic Production

• The United States GDP is about $21 trillion.

• Turkey’s GDP is about $717 billion.

• So the U.S. GDP is around 29 times larger than Turkey’s.

Military Strength

• The United States has over 1.3 million active military personnel.

• Turkey has about 355,000 active military personnel.

• So the U.S. military force is close to 4 times larger than Turkey’s.

Global Influence

• The United States is considered the world’s sole superpower and has great influence globally.

• Turkey has some regional influence but far less than the U.S. worldwide.

So while the United States is much bigger geographically than Turkey, it also dwarfs Turkey in population, economic production, military strength, and global influence.

Comparing Turkey to Other Countries

We’ve compared Turkey specifically to the United States, but it is also illustrative to compare Turkey to other countries around the world:

• Turkey is about 1.5 times larger than Pakistan in land area.

• Turkey is about 3 times larger than the United Kingdom.

• It is approximately equal in size to Texas and Spain.

• At its widest point, Turkey stretches about the distance between Los Angeles and Chicago.

So Turkey is by no means a small country, but it is certainly dwarfed by the massive size of the United States. It is important to keep these kinds of true size comparisons in mind whenever viewing a map of the world. Geography and map projections can sometimes skew our perceptions if we don’t have concrete overlay comparisons like these to reference.