India is the country listed with a total area of about 3,287,263 square kilometres in Wikipedia’s area table.
That figure includes India’s land area together with inland water, rather than measuring only its dry land. India is the world’s seventh-largest country by total area in the cited ranking, behind Russia, Canada, China, the United States, Brazil and Australia.
India’s geography helps explain the figure: the country stretches from the Himalayan region in the north to the Indian Ocean in the south, and includes major river systems, lakes and coastal plains. Its territory also contains islands such as the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep.
Readers often confuse India’s rank by area with its rank by population. India became the world’s most populous country in 2023 according to United Nations estimates, but its geographic area is far smaller than that of the six countries above it. Different sources may vary slightly because of disputed boundaries and different treatment of water.