There are 196 independent states in the world that are recognized by the majority of the United Nations. If you add up the dependent and not recognized states, there are more than 230 states in the world. Some countries are extremely large such as Russia and Canada. Less is known about small countries like Cape Verde. The smaller countries in the world are often rich and are at more remote or intriguing places on earth. The smallest countries are mostly in Europe, the Caribbean and the Pacific.
How big is Cape Verde?
Radar photo of the Cape Verde Islands
Cape Verde covers an area of 4,033 square kilometers (hereinafter km²) and occupies the 30th place in the world’s smallest countries according to the United Nations. This is based on officially recognized independent states. With a land area of over 4,000 km², Cape Verde is larger than, for example, Luxembourg or Samoa, which are ranked 28th and 29th respectively in the ranking of the smallest countries.
Source image: Google Maps
Of the Cape Verde islands, the main island of Santiago is the largest island. If we compare the islands with, for example, the Spanish island of Ibiza (571 km²), there are a number of Cape Verde islands that are significantly smaller and a number that are larger. The area per island from small to large is:
- Brava - 67 km²
- Sal - 216 km²
- Sao Vicente - 227 km²
- Maio - 269 km²
- Sao Nicolau - 338 km²
- Fogo - 476 km²
- Boavista - 620 km²
- Santo Antao - 779 km²
- Santiago - 991 km²
Smallest countries
Of all officially recognized independent states by the United Nations, these are the 15 smallest countries in the world:
| Position | Country | Continent | Surface km² |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Vatican City | Europe | 0,44 |
| 2. | Monaco | Europe | 2,02 |
| 3. | Nauru | Australia (Oceania) | 21 |
| 4. | Tuvalu | Australia (Oceania) | 26 |
| 5. | San Marino | Europe | 61 |
| 6. | Liechtenstein | Europe | 160 |
| 7. | Marshall islands | Australia (Oceania) | 181 |
| 8. | Saint Kitts and Nevis | North America (Caribbean) | 269 |
| 9. | Maldives | Azië | 300 |
| 10. | Malta | Europe | 316 |
| 11. | Grenada | North America (Caribbean) | 344 |
| 12. | Saint Vincent and Grenadines | North America (Caribbean) | 389 |
| 13. | Barbados | North America (Caribbean) | 430 |
| 14. | Antigua and Barbuda | North America (Caribbean) | 422 |
| 15. | Seychelles | Africa | 455 |
So there are many countries that are much smaller than the Cape Verde islands with a size of more than 4,000 km².