Place profile

How big is Taiwan?

Taiwan covers 36,197.3 km² (13,976 sq mi) of land and had a population of 23.3 million in 2025, about 644 people per km² (1,667 per sq mi). In more familiar terms, it is about 1.44 times the size of Maryland.

Compare this place

Area: 36,197.3 km² · 13,976 sq mi
Reference date: 2024-12-31
Population: 23,299,132
Reference date: 2025-12-31
Population density: 643.7 people/km² · 1,667 per sq mi
Calculated from the population and area above; their reference dates may differ.
On a familiar scale: ≈ 1.44 × Maryland (reference rung)
The closest rung on the US reference ladder (Census Bureau land area); see the sources below.
Land per resident: 1,554 m² of land per resident
The inverse of population density, from the same area and population figures.

The outline is fitted to this frame, not a map for measuring distances. Outlying islands may make the main landmass appear smaller.

Taking out the land nobody lives on

How much of the land is actually built on?

Taiwan

1,993.8 km² 5.4% of all land

≈ 74% of Rhode Island

11,686 people per km²
18.2 times the territory-wide average

Category 05, building-use land, in the National Land Use Survey — the survey’s only class covering buildings themselves. It counts commercial premises, housing, mixed-use buildings that are at least half residential, factories, warehouses, places of worship, funerary facilities and buildings under construction. Roads, railways, airports and ports, schools, hospitals, government offices, utilities and parks each sit in separate top-level classes and are not in this figure, which is why it reads far lower than definitions that bundle infrastructure in.

On the other defensible cut (building, transport, public and recreation land): 4,009.1 km², 10.9%

National Land Surveying and Mapping Center, Ministry of the Interior: National Land Use Survey, 2024-2025 cycle, township level-3 results · 2025-12-31

Scope and definitions

Registered population and official administrative land area.

Average administrative density does not describe population distribution in every neighborhood. Compare population definitions and reference dates alongside the numbers.

Places within (by population)

Place	Area km²	Population	Density
Taiwan Main Island	35,812.1	22,992,953	642 /km²
New Taipei City	2,052.6	4,044,831	1,970.6 /km²
Taipei City	271.8	2,439,507	8,975.4 /km²
Kinmen County	151.7	139,313	918.6 /km²
Penghu County	128	107,901	843.2 /km²
Xiaoliuqiu	6.8	12,076	1,775.4 /km²
Orchid Island	48.4	5,220	107.9 /km²
Green Island	15.1	4,327	286.7 /km²

Place guide

How should this Taiwan profile be read?

Taiwan is the main reference used by the first Atlas collection. Its familiar scale helps Traditional Chinese readers interpret countries, regions and islands without relying on abstract square-kilometre figures alone.

What the Taiwan figure includes

The area is official administrative land area, not only flat or inhabited land. The population is registered population at the stated date. The outline contains the geographic units represented by the source geometry.

Mountain ranges and less settled areas remain in the denominator, so average density is not the density of western cities or an average neighbourhood.

Why Taiwan works as a reference

A stable home reference lets readers compare Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Okinawa and Penghu without resetting their mental scale for every page.

International users can choose another reference in the explorer. Taiwan is a starting point for one content series, not a technical limit of the product.