You can walk across the smallest country on Earth in about ten minutes, and you will not cross a border checkpoint to do it. Vatican City sits inside Rome, surrounded on almost every side by Italian streets, and it has been a sovereign state for less than a century.
Below are the measurements, the countries that follow it, and the reason the answer changes if you rank by population instead of area.
The Short Summary
Vatican City is the smallest country in the world, covering 0.49 square kilometres, about 0.19 square miles. Its resident population runs to fewer than a thousand people.
For scale: the entire country would fit inside Central Park in New York roughly seven times over.
| Rank | Country | Area (km²) |
| 1 | Vatican City | 0.49 |
| 2 | Monaco | 2.08 |
| 3 | Nauru | 21 |
| 4 | Tuvalu | 26 |
| 5 | San Marino | 61 |
| 6 | Liechtenstein | 160 |
| 7 | Marshall Islands | 181 |
| 8 | Saint Kitts and Nevis | 261 |
| 9 | Maldives | 300 |
| 10 | Malta | 316 |
The drop-off is steep. Monaco is four times the size of the Vatican, and Nauru is more than forty times the size. After the top two, the list turns from walled enclaves to small islands.
For more comparisons of unusual national records, see Country records explained.
How a State Ended Up Inside Rome
Vatican City is younger than the aeroplane. It came into existence on 11 February 1929 with the Lateran Treaty, signed between the Holy See and the Kingdom of Italy under Benito Mussolini.
The treaty settled a dispute that had run for nearly sixty years. Italian forces took Rome in 1870 and completed unification, absorbing the Papal States, the territory the papacy had governed across central Italy for over a thousand years. Successive popes refused to recognise the loss and remained inside the Vatican walls, calling themselves prisoners. The 1929 agreement traded the enormous former territory for a tiny sovereign one, plus financial compensation and a formal Italian recognition of papal independence.
The result is a country built to guarantee that the head of the Catholic Church answers to no other government.
What Is Inside It?
The territory holds St Peter’s Basilica, St Peter’s Square, the Apostolic Palace, the Vatican Museums, the Sistine Chapel and the Vatican Gardens, which take up roughly half the total area.
It also runs the apparatus of a state: its own post office, a railway station with the shortest national rail network on Earth, a pharmacy, a radio station broadcasting worldwide, a bank, a newspaper, and the Swiss Guard, the military corps that has protected the pope since 1506.
It issues its own passports and its own euro coins, minted under an agreement with the European Union and collected far more often than they are spent.
The Population Question
Rank by population, and the picture blurs. Vatican City has fewer than a thousand residents, and only a few hundred hold Vatican citizenship, which is granted for the duration of a person’s role and is not inherited. Births there are close to unheard of, since the country has no maternity hospital.
Nauru and Tuvalu, both with roughly 11,000 to 12,000 people, are the smallest countries by population among United Nations member states. Vatican City is not a UN member. It holds permanent observer status as the Holy See, alongside Palestine.
This distinction also matters when comparing the biggest country in the world by land area with the smallest sovereign states.
Two Entities That Do Not Count
Sealand. A wartime sea fort off the English coast, declared a principality in 1967. No state recognises it. Self-declared micronations are not countries in any legal sense, however good their websites are.
The Sovereign Military Order of Malta. This one is the strange case. The Order holds diplomatic relations with over 100 countries, issues passports and number plates, and has permanent observer status at the United Nations, all without any territory to govern. It is a sovereign entity that is not a country, which keeps it off these lists.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the smallest country in the world?
Vatican City, at 0.49 square kilometres.
Is Vatican City a real country?
Yes. It is a sovereign state established by the 1929 Lateran Treaty, with its own government, passports, currency arrangements, and diplomatic relations.
What is the second smallest country?
Monaco is roughly 2.08 square kilometres.
Can you visit Vatican City?
Yes. St Peter’s Basilica, St Peter’s Square and the Vatican Museums are open to the public, and there is no passport control on entry from Rome. Dress codes apply inside the basilica and the museums.
Which country has the smallest population?
Vatican City has fewer than a thousand residents. Among United Nations member states, Nauru and Tuvalu are the smallest at around 11,000 to 12,000 each.
What is the oldest country in the world?
San Marino is often considered the oldest country in the world, traditionally tracing its foundation to 301 AD.
Is Vatican City part of Italy?
No. It is an independent state entirely surrounded by the city of Rome. Italy recognised its sovereignty in 1929.
The Bottom Line
Vatican City wins on area by a margin nothing else comes close to, and it exists because a nineteenth-century territorial dispute needed a twentieth-century settlement. Monaco is a distant second. Everything below that is an island, and everything claiming to be smaller than the Vatican is not a country.
Sources
Holy See official statistics and Vatican City State governorate; Lateran Treaty, 1929; United Nations Statistics Division; CIA World Factbook; UNESCO World Heritage Centre.
