Why is Russia so big?

Russia is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world by area. It is the largest country in the world by area, covering over 17,125,191 square kilometres and encompassing one-eighth of Earth’s inhabitable.

One of the major reasons Russia is big is because the Mercator projection makes Russia much larger on geographical maps, compared to the territories closer to the equator.

Despite Russia’s immense geographical size, its population of 146 million people ranks on only eight in the world. This is just to million more than Japan, which has an area that is 45 times smaller.

Kolosov stresses that large parts of Siberia and the Far East, especially in the North, remain largely uninhibited and are characterised by a harsh climate that is challenging for humans to live in.