I’ve always thought it would be very interesting to live in Europe, where completely different countries and cultures are just hours from anywhere you may be. If you departed from where I live and drove hours in any direction, the locals would still speak the same language. That’s the case across the entire U.S., with the exception of some areas near the border with Mexico or Quebec. Geographically, European countries are thought of like the States in my mind. Is that a fair comparison? Let’s check it out.

For this article, Russia is not being considered a European country, and I’ll explain myself at the end. I hope we’re all ok with that.

France vs. Texas 

We might as well start with a big one, so to speak. France is the second largest European country by land area, second only to Ukraine. There has to be an asterisk here, because technically France has more territory if you consider French Guiana and the dozens of islands they have all over the planet. No matter how you slice it though, Texas is larger. I don’t want to spoil it for you, but Texas is larger than any country in Europe. As you can see by the to-scale maps above, the two areas are similar in size. I guess that makes France… Europe’s Texas? That should start some arguments.

France
Area: 247,368 miles² (640,679 km²)
Dimensions: ~600 miles (1000 km) N-S and E-W
Population: 67.4 million

Texas
Area: 268,596 miles² (695,662 km²)
Dimensions: 801 miles (1,289 km) N-S and 773 miles (1,224 km) E-W
Population: 29.1 million

Italy vs. New Mexico

We’re going to look at Italy next, and the state that is the most similar in size just happens to be right next to Texas – New Mexico. The most obvious major difference is that Italy is nearly completely surrounded by water and New Mexico is land-locked. A bit less obvious, Italy has about 30 times more people.

Italy
Area: 116,350 miles² (301,340 km²)
Dimensions: 600 miles (960 km) N-S and maximum 150 miles (240 km) E-W
Population: 60.3 million

New Mexico
Area: 121,590 miles² (314,917 km²)
Dimensions: 371 miles (596 km) N-S and 344 miles (552 km) E-W
Population: 2.1 million

Denmark vs. Vermont and Connecticut

This one is a little more complicated. Denmark is comprised of a main peninsula and 406 different islands, so measurements are tough. The get a stateside size comparison, we have to combine Vermont and Connecticut. This is a pretty good approximation, within less than 1000 square miles, but the states have nearly 2 million people less – combined.

Denmark
Area: 16,577 miles² (442,933 km²)
Dimensions: 250 miles (402 km) N-S and 220 miles 354 km E-W
Population: 5.9 million

Vermont and Connecticut
Area: 15,183 miles² (39,280 km²) combined
Population: 4.2 million combined

Hungary vs. Indiana

Hungary is very close in land area to the state of Indiana and they’re even kind-of/sort-of shaped the same way. Of course, Indiana has the straight borders you’ll never find in Europe. Although only six letters long, the word ‘Hungary’ has an extensive etymology. Parts of the word are derived from Greek, Old Bulgarian, Turkish, Persian, Finnish and Hungarian itself. Here’s something that never occurred to me: the country is called Hungary because of its historical association with the Huns. You know, like Atilla.

Hungary
Area: 35,920 mi² (93,030 km²)
Dimensions: 155 miles (250 km) N-S and 326 miles (524 km) E-W
Population: 9.7 million

Indiana
Area: 36,418 miles² (94,321 km²)
Dimensions: 270 miles (435km) N-S and 140 miles (225 km) E-W
Population: 6.8 million

Germany vs. Montana

Europe’s fifth-largest country (if you don’t include Svalbard and Jan Mayen with Norway) is about the same size as the fourth-largest U.S. state. The thing is, Munich (pop. 1.5 million) is Germany’s third-largest city – but has more population than the entire state of Montana (pop. 1.1 million). Berlin has over 3 times that with 3.5 million. There a lot of people that live in Germany.

Germany
Area: 137,847 miles² (357,022 km²)
Dimensions: 530 miles (853 km) N-S and 404 miles (650 km) E-W
Population: 83.2 million

Montana
Area: 147,040 miles² (380,800 km²)
Dimensions: 255 miles (410 km) N-S and 630 miles (1,105 km) E-W
Population: 1.1 million

Lessons Learned

France is a lot larger than a lot of people realize

You can fit all of Italy inside New Mexico

Denmark is made up of 406 different islands… wow

Why I didn’t include Russia: basically, it made my job easier. Yes, most of developed Russia is situated in what is considered Europe. Geographically, most of Russia is located in Asia and splitting it up would be a headache. Russia is huge, more than twice the size of Alaska not including Siberia, so making comparisons would be difficult.