Is Luxembourg really one of the world's smallest countries?

Luxembourg is certainly not a big country, but it does nevertheless, not win a spot in the top 20 of the world's smallest countries.

In Europe alone, there are a couple of countries that are smaller than our Grand Duchy. Within the European Union, the island state Malta wins the gold medal in terms of smallest country size. Other notable competitors include Monaco, Liechtenstein, Andorra, San Marino and the Vatican. In other words, there are already six countries in Europe that are smaller than Luxembourg.

Outside Europe, there are several other countries that take even less space on the world map. Here's the top 10 of the world's smallest countries:

10. Malta - 316 km²
9. Maldives - 300 km²
8. Saint Kitts and Nevis - 261 km²
7. Marshall-islands - 181 km²
6. Liechtenstein - 160 km²
5. San Marino - 61 km²
4. Tuvalu - 26 km²
3. Nauru - 21 km²
2. Monaco - 2 km²
1. Vatican - 0.44 km²

To address the elephant in the room: where is Luxembourg in this ranking? According to the "World Atlas," the Grand Duchy takes the 28th place.

11. Grenada 344 km²
12. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines km²
13. Barbados 431 km²
14. Antigua and Barbuda 443 km²
15. Seychelles 455 km²
16. Palau 459 km²
17. Andorra 468 km²
18. Saint Lucia 606 km²
19. Singapore 687 km²
20. Micronesia 702 km²
21. Tonga 717 km²
22. Dominica 751km²
23. Bahrain 765 km²
24. Kiribati 811 km²
25. Sao Tome 964 km²
26. Comoros 1,862 km²
27. Mauritius 2,030 km²
28. Luxembourg 2,586 km²
29. Samoa 2,821 km²
30. Cape Verde 4,033 km²

On a side note, not all rankings are identical. Some of them use statistics that measure the size of the country, while others only take into account the size of the state. On the other hand, not all rankings take water surfaces into account.

Luxembourg does make an appearance in the top 10 of the smallest countries in Europe, in another ranking:

10. Kosovo
9. Aserbaijan
8. Luxembourg
7. Georgia
6. Andorra
5. Malta
4. Liechtenstein
3. San Marino
2. Monaco
1. Vatican