How Big Yellowstone Is Compared To Small Countries

Yellowstone National Park covers 3,472 square miles, making it only about 100 square miles smaller than the entire country of Cyprus. Stretching across northwestern Wyoming and small pieces of Montana and Idaho, the park is so large that 33 of the world's conventionally counted 195 states have less surface area. About 96% of that area lies in Wyoming, 3% in Montana, and 1% in Idaho. Even still, it's only America's eighth-largest national park.

Yellowstone Is Almost As Large As Cyprus

The closest country on the larger side of the comparison is Cyprus. The UN lists Cyprus at 9,251 square kilometers, or about 3,572 square miles. Yellowstone is 8,991 square kilometers, leaving a difference of only 260 square kilometers, roughly 100 square miles. Nothing else about the two places looks particularly similar on a map. Cyprus is a Mediterranean island more than 140 miles long, while Yellowstone occupies an elevated section of the Rocky Mountains.

Immediately below Yellowstone comes a much larger gap. The UN lists the State of Palestine at 6,025 square kilometers, about 2,326 square miles. It has held non-member observer State status at the United Nations since November 2012. Using the common 195-state framework of 193 UN members plus the two UN observer states, the State of Palestine is therefore the largest state with less surface area than Yellowstone.

Several Familiar Countries Are Much Smaller

Brunei covers 5,765 square kilometers, or about 2,226 square miles. Trinidad and Tobago is smaller still at 5,127 square kilometers, roughly 1,980 square miles. Cabo Verde, the Atlantic island country off West Africa, covers 4,033 square kilometers. Each could lose hundreds of square miles from Yellowstone's official area and still remain smaller than the park. The gap becomes even more striking farther down the ranking. Samoa covers 2,842 square kilometers, while Luxembourg covers 2,586. Yellowstone has about three and a half times Luxembourg's surface area. Altogether, there are 33 countries smaller than Yellowstone.

Yellowstone Lake Is Bigger Than 10 Countries

The comparison becomes stranger without even using the entire park. Yellowstone Lake alone covers 131.7 square miles, or 341.1 square kilometers. It stretches roughly 20 miles north to south and 14 miles east to west. That gives the lake more surface area than ten states in the same 195-state comparison: Vatican City, Monaco, Nauru, Tuvalu, San Marino, Liechtenstein, the Marshall Islands, Saint Kitts and Nevis, the Maldives, and Malta. Malta is the closest. UN data give it a surface area of 315 square kilometers, compared with Yellowstone Lake's 341.1. The Maldives covers 300 square kilometers, while the Marshall Islands has only about 181 square kilometers of dry land spread across its many islands and atolls.

Even One Geyser Basin Rivals Microstates

At the opposite extreme is Vatican City. At less than one square kilometer, it is the world's smallest sovereign state by territory. Monaco is only about two square kilometers. Yellowstone's Upper Geyser Basin covers roughly one square mile, or 2.6 square kilometers. Within that small area are at least 150 geysers, including Old Faithful, Grand, Castle, Daisy, and Riverside. By area alone, the geyser basin is therefore larger than either Vatican City or Monaco.

That single square mile contains only a tiny fraction of Yellowstone. Across the full park are more than 10,000 hydrothermal features, more than 500 active geysers, nearly 290 waterfalls, mountain peaks above 11,000 feet, broad forests, grasslands, and a lake itself larger than several sovereign states.

Why Yellowstone Feels Even Bigger

Area comparisons do not fully capture Yellowstone's scale. The park extends roughly 63 miles from north to south and 54 miles east to west. About 80% is forested, another 15% is grassland, and only around 5% is covered by water. Unlike Singapore, Monaco, or Malta, very little of those 3,472 square miles consists of dense settlement.

Much of Yellowstone is roadless mountain, forest, river valley, or volcanic plateau. Its wildlife includes bison, elk, bighorn sheep, wolves, grizzly bears, and other species spread across a landscape forming the core of the much larger Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Cyprus is only slightly larger. The State of Palestine, Brunei, Trinidad and Tobago, and 30 other states are smaller. And Yellowstone Lake by itself has more surface area than ten of them. The real takeaway is that those seeking some of America's most pristine wilderness can find it in Yellowstone. Best to see it before it's gone!