The statistic shows the 30 largest countries in the world by area. Russia is the largest country by far, with a total area of about 17 million square kilometers.

Population of Russia

Despite its large area, Russia - nowadays the largest country in the world - has a relatively small total population. However, its population is still rather large in numbers in comparison to those of other countries. In mid-2014, it was ranked ninth on a list of countries with the largest population, a ranking led by China with a population of over 1.37 billion people. In 2015, the estimated total population of Russia amounted to around 146 million people. The aforementioned low population density in Russia is a result of its vast landmass; in 2014, there were only around 8.78 inhabitants per square kilometer living in the country. Most of the Russian population lives in the nation’s capital and largest city, Moscow: In 2015, over 12 million people lived in the metropolis.

In 2022, India overtook China as the world's most populous country and now has almost 1.46 billion people. China now has the second-largest population in the world, still with just over 1.4 billion inhabitants, however, its population went into decline in 2023. Global population As of 2025, the world's population stands at almost 8.2 billion people and is expected to reach around 10.3 billion people in the 2080s, when it will then go into decline. Due to improved healthcare, sanitation, and general living conditions, the global population continues to increase; mortality rates (particularly among infants and children) are decreasing and the median age of the world population has steadily increased for decades. As for the average life expectancy in industrial and developing countries, the gap has narrowed significantly since the mid-20th century. Asia is the most populous continent on Earth; 11 of the 20 largest countries are located there. It leads the ranking of the global population by continent by far, reporting four times as many inhabitants as Africa. The Demographic Transition The population explosion over the past two centuries is part of a phenomenon known as the demographic transition. Simply put, this transition results from a drastic reduction in mortality, which then leads to a reduction in fertility, and increase in life expectancy; this interim period where death rates are low and birth rates are high is where this population explosion occurs, and population growth can remain high as the population ages. In today's most-developed countries, the transition generally began with industrialization in the 1800s, and growth has now stabilized as birth and mortality rates have re-balanced. Across less-developed countries, the stage of this transition varies; for example, China is at a later stage than India, which accounts for the change in which country is more populous - understanding the demographic transition can help understand the reason why China's population is now going into decline. The least-developed region is Sub-Saharan Africa, where fertility rates remain close to pre-industrial levels in some countries. As these countries transition, they will undergo significant rates of population growth

With a market capitalization of 3.12 trillion U.S. dollars as of May 2024, Microsoft was the world’s largest company that year. Rounding out the top five were some of the world’s most recognizable brands: Apple, NVIDIA, Google’s parent company Alphabet, and Amazon. Saudi Aramco led the ranking of the world's most profitable companies in 2023, with a pre-tax income of nearly 250 billion U.S. dollars. How are market value and market capitalization determined? Market value and market capitalization are two terms frequently used – and confused - when discussing the profitability and viability of companies. Strictly speaking, market capitalization (or market cap) is the worth of a company based on the total value of all their shares; an important metric when determining the comparative value of companies for trading opportunities. Accordingly, many stock exchanges such as the New York or London Stock Exchange release market capitalization data on their listed companies. On the other hand, market value technically refers to what a company is worth in a much broader context. It is determined by multiple factors, including profitability, corporate debt, and the market environment as a whole. In this sense it aims to estimate the overall value of a company, with share price only being one element. Market value is therefore useful for determining whether a company’s shares are over- or undervalued, and in arriving at a price if the company is to be sold. Such valuations are generally made on a case-by-case basis though, and not regularly reported. For this reason, market capitalization is often reported as market value. What are the top companies in the world? The answer to this question depends on the metric used. Although the largest company by market capitalization, Microsoft's global revenue did not manage to crack the top 20 companies. Rather, American multinational retailer Walmart was ranked as the largest company in the world by revenue. Walmart also had the highest number of employees in the world.

Lagos, in Nigeria, ranked as the most populated city in Africa as of 2024, with an estimated population of roughly nine million inhabitants living in the city proper. Kinshasa, in Congo, and Cairo, in Egypt, followed with some 7.8 million and 7.7 million dwellers. Among the 15 largest cities in the continent, another two, Kano, and Ibadan, were located in Nigeria, the most populated country in Africa. Population density trends in Africa As of 2022, Africa exhibited a population density of 48.3 individuals per square kilometer. At the beginning of 2000, the population density across the continent has experienced a consistent annual increment. Projections indicated that the average population residing within each square kilometer would rise to approximately 54 by the year 2027. Moreover, Mauritius stood out as the African nation with the most elevated population density, exceeding 640 individuals per square kilometre. Mauritius possesses one of the most compact territories on the continent, a factor that significantly influences its high population density. Urbanization dynamics in Africa The urbanization rate in Africa was anticipated to reach close to 44 percent in 2021. Urbanization across the continent has consistently risen since 2000, with urban areas accommodating 35 percent of the total population. This trajectory is projected to continue its ascent in the years ahead. Nevertheless, the distribution between rural and urban populations shows remarkable diversity throughout the continent. In 2021, Gabon and Libya stood out as Africa’s most urbanized nations, each surpassing 80 percent urbanization. In 2023, Africa's population was estimated to expand by 2.35 percent compared to the preceding year. Since 2000, the population growth rate across the continent has consistently exceeded 2.45 percent, reaching its pinnacle at 2.59 percent between 2012 and 2013. Although the growth rate has experienced a deceleration, Africa's population will persistently grow significantly in the forthcoming years.

In 2023, Walt Disney Company was the largest media company worldwide, with a market value of 183 billion U.S. dollars. In second place was Comcast Corporation with a market value of 170 billion U.S. dollars, followed by Charter Communications, Inc. at 53 billion U.S. dollars. Spotlight: Disney’s ever strong presence Not only is Disney a household name loved for its merchandise, theme parks, and near timeless appeal, it is also one of the most valuable media brands in the world. Despite the death of Walt Disney in 1966, the company went from strength to strength and kept up with the pace of every fast-moving market of which it is a part, with the most recent addition being streaming service Disney+. The Walt Disney Company has multiple assets, and its entertainment holdings include Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm, 20th Century Fox, Pixar, and ESPN Inc. These are indisputably Disney’s biggest money makers, as the media and entertainment segment accounts for 65 percent of the total. Spotlight: Comcast competing for customers Comcast, the owner of such entertainment brands as NBCUniversal, Sky, DreamWorks, and Universal Studios, generates the largest share of its revenue from its cable communications segment, at more than 53 percent. However, the growth of the video streaming market and the subsequent increase in cord-cutting in the United States is directly impacting the subscriptions of most companies and Comcast is no stranger to this trend. Since 2018, the company has seen losses in video subscribers intensify year-on-year. Comcast’s ad-supported streaming service, Xumo, competes with Roku, Pluto, and Plex for the number of channels offered to stay in the game and attract consumers.

In 2022, approximately 11.45 million people lived in São Paulo, making it the largest municipality in Brazil and one of the most populous cities in the world. The homonymous state of São Paulo was also the most populous federal entity in the country.

Brazil's cities

Brazil is home to two large metropolises: São Paulo with close to 11.45 million inhabitants, and Rio de Janeiro with around 6.21 million inhabitants. It also contains a number of smaller, but well known cities such as Brasília, Salvador, Belo Horizonte and many others, which report between 2 and 3 million inhabitants each. As a result, the country's population is primarily urban, with nearly 85 percent of inhabitants living in cities.

While smaller than some of the other cities, Brasília was chosen to be the capital because of its relatively central location. The city is also well-known for its modernist architecture and utopian city plan which is quite controversial - criticized by many and praised by others.

Sports venues capitals

A number of Brazil’s medium-sized and large cities were chosen as venues for the 2014 World Cup, and the 2015 Summer Olympics also took place in Rio de Janeiro. Both of these events required large sums of money to support infrastructure and enhance mobility within a number of different cities across the country. Billions of dollars were spent on the 2014 World Cup, which went primarily to stadium construction and renovation, but also to a number of different mobility projects. Other short-term spending on infrastructure for the World Cup and the Rio Olympic Games was estimated at around 50 billion U.S. dollars. While these events have poured a lot of money into urban infrastructure, a number of social and economic problems within the country remain unsolved.

Based on land area, Brazil is the largest country in Latin America by far, with a total area of over 8.5 million square kilometers. Argentina follows with almost 2.8 million square kilometers. Cuba, whose surface area extends over almost 111,000 square kilometers, is the Caribbean country with the largest territory.

Brazil: a country with a lot to offer

Brazil's borders reach nearly half of the South American subcontinent, making it the fifth-largest country in the world and the third-largest country in the Western Hemisphere. Along with its landmass, Brazil also boasts the largest population and economy in the region. Although Brasília is the capital, the most significant portion of the country's population is concentrated along its coastline in the cities of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.

South America: a region of extreme geographic variation

With the Andes mountain range in the West, the Amazon Rainforest in the East, the Equator in the North, and Cape Horn as the Southern-most continental tip, South America has some of the most diverse climatic and ecological terrains in the world. At its core, its biodiversity can largely be attributed to the Amazon, the world's largest tropical rainforest, and the Amazon river, the world's largest river. However, with this incredible wealth of ecology also comes great responsibility. In the past decade, roughly 80,000 square kilometers of the Brazilian Amazon were destroyed. And, as of late 2019, there were at least 1,000 threatened species in Brazil alone.

In 2023, the number of data compromises in the United States stood at 3,205 cases. Meanwhile, over 353 million individuals were affected in the same year by data compromises, including data breaches, leakage, and exposure. While these are three different events, they have one thing in common. As a result of all three incidents, the sensitive data is accessed by an unauthorized threat actor. Industries most vulnerable to data breaches Some industry sectors usually see more significant cases of private data violations than others. This is determined by the type and volume of the personal information organizations of these sectors store. In 2022, healthcare, financial services, and manufacturing were the three industry sectors that recorded most data breaches. The number of healthcare data breaches in the United States has gradually increased within the past few years. In the financial sector, data compromises increased almost twice between 2020 and 2022, while manufacturing saw an increase of more than three times in data compromise incidents. Largest data exposures worldwide In 2020, an adult streaming website, CAM4, experienced a leakage of nearly 11 billion records. This, by far, is the most extensive reported data leakage. This case, though, is unique because cyber security researchers found the vulnerability before the cyber criminals. The second-largest data breach is the Yahoo data breach, dating back to 2013. The company first reported about one billion exposed records, then later, in 2017, came up with an updated number of leaked records, which was three billion. In March 2018, the third biggest data breach happened, involving India’s national identification database Aadhaar. As a result of this incident, over 1.1 billion records were exposed.

In 2024, Madrid was the city with the most inhabitants in Spain. In that year, more than 3.42 million people lived in the city. Barcelona was the second-largest city with 1.69 million residents.

The data center sector saw nine major deals worth over a billion U.S. dollars in 2023 and 2024. During that period, the biggest deal with a reported valuation was Blackstone's acquisition of Airtrunk, worth approximately 14.9 billion U.S. dollars. Two other deals surpassed the five billion threshold — Silverlake's minority investment in Vantage and Brookfield and Ontario Teachers' acquisition of Compass.

As of September 2024, more than 50 percent of respondents in China who used large AI models said that in the financial field, they were most looking forward to the application of large AI models for analyzing risk. Overall, around 30 percent of respondents were expecting large AI model utilization in the financial field.

In 2024, numerous data breach incidents were disclosed, causing uncertainty among customers. Some of the incidents have refused to disclose the exact number of individuals impacted, so the impact in these cases is only estimated. The largest data breach is believed to have impacted every American, with around three billion records being breached. A UK-based pathology lab, Synnovis, saw a ransomware attack in July 2024, which impacted approximately 300 million patients.

In 2024, the United States had the largest economy in the world, with a gross domestic product of just under 29 trillion U.S. dollars. China had the second largest economy, at around 18.5 trillion U.S. dollars. Recent adjustments in the list have seen Germany's economy overtake Japan's to become the third-largest in the world in 2023, while Brazil's economy moved ahead of Italy's in 2024. Global gross domestic product Global gross domestic product amounts to almost 110 trillion U.S. dollars, with the United States making up more than one-quarter of this figure alone. The 12 largest economies in the world include all Group of Seven (G7) economies, as well as the four largest BRICS economies. The U.S. has consistently had the world's largest economy since the interwar period, and while previous reports estimated it would be overtaken by China in the 2020s, more recent projections estimate the U.S. economy will remain the largest by a considerable margin going into the 2030s.The gross domestic product of a country is calculated by taking spending and trade into account, to show how much the country can produce in a certain amount of time, usually per year. It represents the value of all goods and services produced during that year. Those countries considered to have emerging or developing economies account for almost 60 percent of global gross domestic product, while advanced economies make up over 40 percent.

Algeria is the biggest country in Africa, with an area exceeding 2.38 million square kilometers as of 2020. The Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sudan follow with a total area of around 2.34 million and 1.88 million square kilometers, respectively. On the other hand, Seychelles is the smallest country on the continent, with an area of only 460 square kilometers. Overall, Africa’s total area exceeds 30 million square kilometers, being the second largest continent in the world after Asia. Nigeria and Ethiopia lead the ranking of the most populated countries in Africa.

How have the African countries been formed?

The political geography of Africa has been influenced by its colonial history. Between the 19th and 20th Century, the European colonizers have divided up Africa. The partition of the territories was merely driven by strategic purposes: Borders between countries were artificially created in the absence of a geographic border. Following the decolonization, most countries gained their independence in the second half of the 1900s. The newest country in Africa is South Sudan, which became independent in 2011.

Africa's physical geography

Geographically, the African continent is mostly constituted by plains and tablelands. Inner plateaus are prevalent in the sub-Saharan region. In the center-north, the arid Sahara Desert extends for around nine million square kilometers, being the largest subtropical desert in the world. The continent also has some of the biggest water basins worldwide, namely the Nile, Congo, and Niger rivers. East Africa has, instead, the highest summit on the continent, the Kilimanjaro. Peaking at 5,895 meters, the mountain dominates Tanzania’s landscape and attracts thousands of climbers each year.

The college football industry in the United States is big business, with thousands of fans streaming into stadiums each week to see their favorite teams live. First opened in 1927, the Michigan Stadium, home to NCAA Division I team the Michigan Wolverines, has a capacity of over 107 thousand. Aptly named "The Big House", the stadium in Ann Arbor, Michigan, is the largest sports stadium in the United States. How popular is college football? Over half of respondents to a 2023 survey claimed to be a fan of college football that year. Specifically, the online survey found that 22 percent of respondents were avid fans of the NCAA-organized games, while 35 percent were just casual fans. The showdown between FSU and LSU in September 2023 was the most watched college football kickoff weekend game in 2023. Overall, more than nine million individuals tuned in to watch that game. What is the NCAA? The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that coordinates sports programs in a large share of universities and colleges in the United States and Canada. In 2024, most of the revenue generated by the NCAA was from television and marketing rights fees, whereas most of the organization’s expenses were in the form of disbursements to Division I members, the highest level of NCAA college sport.

China was the biggest emitter of carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions in 2023, accounting for over 31 percent of total global emissions. The world's top four largest polluters were responsible for roughly 60 percent of global CO₂ emissions in 2023. Cumulative emissions Although China currently emits the highest levels of CO₂ annually, it has emitted far less than the United States over the past three centuries. Since 1750, the United States has produced more than 430 billion metric tons of cumulative carbon dioxide emissions. Global CO₂ emissions have increased dramatically since the birth of the Industrial Revolution, and in 2023 reached a record high. Which countries are reducing emissions? As of 2023, seven of the 20 biggest CO₂ emitters had recorded overall emissions reductions when compared to 1990 levels. The United Kingdom, for example, slashed its carbon emissions by almost 50 percent between 1990 and 2023, while Germany recorded reductions of roughly 43 percent. In comparison, many developing countries saw their emissions increase massively over the same period.

As of March 2024, JPMorgan Chase Bank was the largest bank in the United States by the number of branches, with 5,110 branches nationwide. It was followed by Wells Fargo Bank, which operated 4,349 branches, and Bank of America, with 3,975 branches. For context, Wells Fargo had approximately three times the number of branches as Lloyds Bank, the leading British bank by branch count. Is the U.S. banking sector stable? The stability of the U.S. banking sector has improved steadily since the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. The share of non-performing loans held by U.S. banks has consistently decreased over time. As of the first quarter of 2024, all four of the largest U.S. banks—Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and Citigroup—maintained a Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) capital ratio well above the Basel-III minimum requirement of 4.5 percent. The CET1 capital ratio, which measures a bank’s core capital against its risk-weighted assets, is a key indicator of a bank's financial strength and resilience. Digital banking in the U.S. With the rise of digital services, many traditional banking functions can now be performed online, reducing the need for a physical presence. Since 2009, the number of bank branches in the United States has steadily declined as consumers increasingly rely on digital banking solutions. This trend accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic, with more Americans turning to online banking for convenience and cost-effectiveness.

This statistic shows the biggest cities in Panama in 2023. In 2023, approximately 1.13 million people lived in Panama Cty (Ciudad de Panamá), making it the biggest city in Panama.

As of February 2023, the WannaCry ransomware attack launched in 2017 was the biggest attack by its impact. During this attack, cyber actors took over 250 thousand user accounts of Microsoft Windows. As a result of this attack, the company lost over four billion U.S. dollars. The latest of selected significant cyberattacks was the 2022 ransomware attack against Swisspost, in which 1.6 terabytes of data was stolen.

As of October 2024, Alphabet was the biggest internet company worldwide with a market cap of over two trillion U.S. dollars Second-ranked Amazon had a market capitalization of 1.97 trillion U.S. dollars. The end of the 1990s in the United States saw the rise of a great number of internet companies, also called online companies or a variety of the name “dot com,” where the “.com” domain is derived from the word commercial. At the time, such startups were merely riding the wave of early internet business, but had little capital and perhaps one good idea. Few companies have survived the burst of the dot com bubble and even fewer have managed to become internationally successful. A few notable exceptions are American companies such as Google (founded in 1998), Amazon (founded in 1994) or eBay Inc. (founded in 1995), and the Chinese online giant Alibaba (founded in 1998), which have come to be some of the largest internet companies in the world. Topping the ranking of largest internet companies worldwide is currently Alphabet, the parent company of Google, with a market capitalization of 2 trillion U.S. dollars as of October 2024. Having started as a PhD project at Stanford University, the Google project slowly gained traction and is now the number one search engine in the world, with a market share of 86 percent on the search engine market. Due to a number of high profile acquisitions, Google has expanded its portfolio beyond search, to include the video content sharing site YouTube, the digital app platform Google Play Store, the webmail service Gmail and the web browser Google Chrome, to only name a few. As of May 2024, it is also the most visited multi-platform website in the United States, with almost 274 million U.S. unique visitors during that month alone. In October 2015, Google reorganized itself into a newly created parent company, the multinational conglomerate Alphabet Inc. The biggest internet companies in terms of their workforce are currently Amazon, Alphabet and Meta.