France has the world's largest exclusive economic zone.
France's maritime zone is unusually large because the country administers overseas departments, regions, and territories scattered across the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, and Southern oceans. Together, these waters give France an EEZ of roughly 10.9 million square kilometers, far larger than the area of metropolitan France.
An exclusive economic zone extends up to 200 nautical miles from a country's coast, where that country has special rights to explore, manage, and exploit natural resources. Those rights cover resources such as fish, oil, gas, and seabed minerals, but an EEZ is not the same as full national territory: foreign ships generally retain freedom of navigation.
The United States and Australia also rank among the countries with very large EEZs, which is why they are tempting alternatives. France's overseas geography is the deciding factor. Its scattered islands and territories create maritime claims on several oceans, making France the standard answer in global EEZ comparisons.