Qatar – small enough to fit in your pocket


Qatar is ranked 164th in area and 148th in population amongst the world’s sovereign states. This makes the gulf state about the same size as Yorkshire (11,437 km² to 11,897 km²) and has a population a little bit bigger than Merseyside (1.69 million to 1.35 million).

It is a little bit smaller than Connecticut (14,357 km²) or Puerto Rico (13,792 km²), but is nearly three times as big as the USA’s smallest state, Rhode Island (4,002 km²).  Its population is sandwiched between Idaho (1,584,985) and Nebraska (1,842,641).

In 2022, it will be hosting the World Cup.It is by far the smallest country to have ever hosted the World Cup – the next smallest is Switzerland (41,285 km²) who hosted in 1954. But in population terms, Qatar is only just the smallest – Uruguay only had a population of 1,734,000 in 1930 when it hosted the World Cup in 1930.