Countries with the Longest Coastlines

We compiled a list of the 20 countries with the longest coastlines. How many can you name?

Full list, based on original research by the Quizmaster

Includes overseas regions, dependencies, and autonomous areas

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Last updated: April 19, 2019

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First submitted	August 16, 2010
Times taken	369,309
Average score	85.0%
Rating	4.79

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Kilometers	Country
137,000	Canada
73,100	Russia
69,500	United States
52,500	Indonesia
48,800	Denmark (includes Greenland)
34,100	Australia
31,300	Chile

Kilometers	Country
27,400	Norway
18,700	Brazil
17,300	Philippines
16,800	China
16,700	United Kingdom
15,600	Mexico
15,500	Japan

Kilometers	Country
12,200	France
11,200	Papua New Guinea
11,000	India
10,300	New Zealand
9,480	Greece
6,520	Sweden

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103 Recent Comments

+12

Level 81

Apr 19, 2019

Italy and Croatia both not included in the new source? and wasn't Turkey on here before, too?

Level 33

Jan 5, 2020

Italy needs to be included the coastline is long

Level 69

May 1, 2020

Italy is 22nd, so it doesn't make it.

Level 75

Dec 1, 2020

Sure? Italy should have some 7.500 km. of coastlines

Level 76

Apr 27, 2019

That's a remarkably low estimate for New Zealand. Where did that come from?

+20

Level 33

May 13, 2019

Madagascar?

Level 51

May 13, 2019

apparently not when its bigger than the uk and has lots of islands

Level 24

Oct 26, 2020

The U.K. has overseas possessions that are islands is probably why.

+22

Level 68

Nov 16, 2020

The U.K's coastline is more twisty and jagged than Madagascar's.

Level 83

Aug 19, 2021

Yes, it's definitely down to the shape of the actual country rather than the overseas possessions, which are tiny.

Level 51

May 13, 2019

good quiz. i got them all, but i didnt get denmark till the very end.

+28

Level 44

May 13, 2019

The coastline paradox makes it virtually impossible to accurately measure a country's coastline.

Level 72

May 24, 2019

how is it impossible to measure a coastline?? you just follow the edges, the coastline...

+24

Level 57

Jun 4, 2019

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFjq8PX6F7I

Level 56

Mar 11, 2020

I would have recommended the same video if I was earlier than you. Great explanation by RLL.

Level 70

May 13, 2019

I only missed Papua New Guinea.

Level 41

May 26, 2019

Same here

Level 70

Aug 19, 2021

And I did again lol

Level 43

May 13, 2019

the uk, france, philippines, and greece make sence uk and france have a bunch of islands and a large part of greece is islands so is the philippines.

Level 78

May 13, 2019

PNG for the win

Level 52

May 15, 2019

why is australia's coastline so small. Greeland has a quarter of the area but a much bigger coastline; wtf?

Level 72

May 24, 2019

coastline isnt as the crow flies, but the actual coastline, so every inlet and tiny island is measured.

+10

Level 56

Mar 11, 2020

Fjords and Coastline Paradox

Level 72

May 24, 2019

How is greece the lowest guessed in a quiz about coastlines??

Level 41

May 26, 2019

Idk

Level 53

May 4, 2022

because greece's coastline doesnt look that big when the philippines and png are on here

Level 57

Jun 6, 2019

Thought some more of the islands nations would appear like Micronesia, Solomon Islands or Marshall Islands. Still got them all, but took some thinking.

Level 26

Dec 21, 2020

I thought so too at first but the size of them is just too small in comparison to the big countries that the coastline/area ratio doesn't matter

Level 61

Jan 15, 2022

If you want a version with smaller island countries try Smallest Countries with the Most Coastline.

Level 53

Jun 11, 2019

Got 5 points on my first go. Quite easy, if I say so myself :P

Level 64

Jul 14, 2019

Forgot France😀

Level 43

Jul 19, 2019

Woaw How can Sweden beat Argentina

+12

Level 61

Jul 23, 2019

Argentina isn’t on the list?

Level 44

Oct 15, 2020

same

Level 40

Oct 6, 2019

No Madagascar?

Level 75

Oct 11, 2019

The wikipedia article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_length_of_coastline is very interesting with its two lists from different sources. the numbers are totally different. For example, Finland is 70th on one list with 1700 km and 10th on the other with 30000+.

Level 59

Dec 29, 2019

My guess (based on being a Finnish person, not an online source). The first one, with 1700km, is calculating only the coastline of the mainland, and possibly even that one by cutting some corners. The 30000+ includes coasts of all the islands, of which there are a LOT.

Level 50

Dec 21, 2019

I got 19 and forgot Russia

I got Papua New Guinea and Philippines but forgot Russia.

How could I forget it's the biggest country in the world.

Level 68

Dec 17, 2020

Why are you thinking Philippines is not known???

Level 15

Aug 19, 2021

Philippines is like the Cuba of asia, everyone knows about it, but you forget it really easily

Level 72

Feb 25, 2020

There is no accurate way to measure coastline arbitrarily well from a map. Because of that, many paradoxes will be inevitable. How is Madagascar absent, when Papua New Guinea is present, for example? One would think Argentina or South Africa surely have as much coastline as Sweden, but it's a weird thing, measuring length of a curve that doesn't have statically defined position or curvature. Anyway, fun quiz nonetheless.

Level 75

Jan 6, 2021

a paradox ≠ something unexpected

Level 72

Jun 18, 2021

Paradox (noun) a seemingly absurd or contradictory statement or proposition which when investigated may prove to be well founded or true.

Level 75

Aug 21, 2021

What is the contradictory idea?

surprising ≠ contradictory

I think it's surprising that PNG has more coastline than Madagascar (was that the original thing?) but it's not paradoxical.

p.s. I take issue with that Google definition of paradox - we could rename the interesting facts as "paradoxes" if that were right!

Level 72

Aug 25, 2021

So, there is a very clear difference between "contradictory" and "seemingly contradictory." If you don't like the definition, and you don't like my word usage, provide your own definition and we can go from there, otherwise you are not really making a convincing point.

Level 37

Jun 7, 2023

As a matter of fact there is no such thing as the length of a coastline. Mathematically, the length of a curve is the limit of smaller and smaller linearizations of the curve. This procedure however is senseless when it comes to a coast: The length will just go towards infinity, because eventually you will have to take into account every small stone that sticks out of the water.

Every data on lengths of coastlines is the result of arbitrarily setting the 'fineness' of the linearization.

Level 66

Apr 2, 2020

Missed Sweden! Got Norway, tried Finland, didn't get anything, decided not to try Sweden, and then I was stuck with 19/20.

Level 57

Apr 21, 2020

That Norway should have not just more coastline than Brazil but SO MUCH more is really surprising. Very interesting quiz!

Level 39

Apr 24, 2020

Someone please explain how I got all of them lol. I mean I guess i’m Filipino but oh well

Level 66

May 14, 2020

Really suspect Sweden being in this list!

Level 55

Jul 19, 2020

Forgot India and I live here 😦

Level 24

Sep 23, 2020

Surprised to see that turkey is not in list but Greece is

Level 68

Oct 24, 2020

I got every single country except the USA and I live in the country right beside it. Help me lol

Level 62

Oct 20, 2022

Ironic that your name is Dontforget

Level 24

Oct 26, 2020

Quite amazing what a difference having many islands makes to ‘distance’ of a coastline. Countries that are apparently pretty small have huge coastlines while much larger nations like Saudi Arabia, which despite bordering both the Red and Arabian seas has a smaller coastline even though it looks pretty big on a map.

Level 23

Nov 19, 2020

i forgot japan

Level 44

Dec 10, 2020

Japan was the last for me.

Level 64

Jan 5, 2021

No Madagascar?

Level 64

Apr 24, 2021

Madagascar has 1600km bigger coastline than Sweden which actually has 3200, not 6500

Level 20

Jun 1, 2021

I forgot Greece

Level 48

Jun 1, 2021

me too it does not look that big lol

Level 70

Jun 13, 2021

Missed Papua New Guinea which I apparently did the last time I took this so I'm still at 19 smh

Level 70

Dec 14, 2021

Same thing again

Level 32

Aug 1, 2021

Why is there no Argentina?

Level 61

Jan 15, 2022

Most of Argentina's coastline is blocked by Chile.

Level 35

Aug 19, 2021

Where is South Africa?

Level 61

Feb 21, 2022

It's the southern tip of Africa. It borders Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, and Zimbabwe.

Level 29

Oct 6, 2021

i got all but Papua New Guinea

Level 60

Nov 9, 2021

I missed India I’m stupid

Level 33

Dec 18, 2021

I really typed in california..

Level 35

Jan 14, 2022

Where is Madagascar?

Level 41

Jan 23, 2022

Italy has 7.5km2 so more than Sweden.

Level 69

May 6, 2022

How would you get squared km from measuring coastline? Km2 are used for measuring area, not perimeters.

Level 59

Feb 20, 2022

I'm tired of always forget philippines in all quizes :,(

Level 45

Sep 17, 2024

This comment is what made be get 100%

Thank you kind fellow

Level 61

Feb 21, 2022

I made a version with multiple sources, including Quizmaster's source.

Level 71

Mar 7, 2022

How is New Zealand here but Madagascar is not?

Level 33

Mar 28, 2022

love how the caveat gives you all the answers

Level 25

May 21, 2022

I personally really disliked the quiz, because of bad answers.

For example Norways coastline is actually 100 915km and not 27 400km.

Level 34

Jun 22, 2022

How is D.R. Congo having a coastline of 211km, according to the source?

Level 67

Jun 8, 2023

It has a tiny part touching the Atlantic.

Level 20

Aug 6, 2022

Umm Sweden has a coastline of just over 3,000km… not 6,000.

Level 47

Oct 3, 2022

why is Greenland included by Denmark in this quiz but not in the "Biggest Countries by Area" quiz

Level 31

Oct 7, 2022

100% with 22 seconds left, very nice quiz.

Level 47

Oct 13, 2022

Guessed all but missed Greece (Isn't Argentina's coastlines are longer than Greece?)

Level 57

Nov 1, 2023

im saying like i needed a quadruple take for my brain to comprehend that Argentina wasn't on the list

Level 33

Oct 16, 2022

How is Sweden on the list?

Level 64

Nov 23, 2022

I wish you'd make your mind up whether Australia is a country or a continental landmass, because I've just now done a quiz where it wasn't counted as a country...

Level 81

Dec 24, 2022

Australia is both a country and the continental landmass of Oceania. Not that hard to understand. In the same way that Iceland is both a country and an island in the North Atlantic. What quiz are you talking about? Is it one where you're required to name islands or countries on islands? Giving you Australia as a gimme on that quiz doesn't negate the fact that it's a country. There are no quizzes on the site that don't count Australia as a country.

Level 68

May 1, 2023

About the coastline paradox: Does it even matter if we use the same base length (i.e. 10 km) as a measuring stick to measure all coastlines?

Level 40

May 3, 2023

Got papua new guinea, forgot russia

Level 44

Jun 8, 2023

bro I missed UK....

Level 68

Jun 8, 2023

Ah, I missed Greece. They have a lot of islands butI wasted all my time typing in big african countries with coastlines.

Level 58

Jun 8, 2023

omg i forgot china mexico and india-

Level 73

Dec 18, 2023

Sweden being here and not Madagascar is really surprising

Level 28

Jan 6, 2024

Is it bad that I got papua new guinea but not canada

Level 58

Feb 7, 2024

Cool but i think that bc of its weird shape Guinea Bissau actually has the eighth longest coastline in the world (crazy)

Level 64

Jun 21, 2024

I believe that Guinea-Bissau has the eighth longest coastline in Africa, not the world. Still very impressive for a country of that size, but not quite that long.

Level 56

Mar 18, 2024

Only missed Papua New Guinea

Level 28

Jul 3, 2024

wrong information. India's total coastline is 7516.6 km not 11000

Level 46

Jul 3, 2024

How madagascar isnt listed, I'll never know.... Just the visual on a map looks entirely longer than France.

Edit: according to google search France's coastlines are 5500 km. Madagascar is 6000km.

Level 33

Sep 11, 2024

I THOUGHT I TYPED JAPAN! WHHHYYYY???

Level 40

Nov 11, 2024

Where is Turkey? According to Wikipedia Turkey has longer coastline than Sweden and india.

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