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Countries with the Largest Exclusive Economic Zone

Name the countries that control the largest ocean territory.
Area extending 200 nautical miles (370 km) from a country's coast, or to the midpoint between it and a neighbouring country
Includes external territories
Source: Wikipedia
Quiz by TenThousand
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Last updated: July 6, 2023
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First submittedNovember 14, 2014
Times taken54,174
Average score75.0%
Rating4.89
3:15
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Km²
Country
11,351,000
United States
10,187,000
France
9,025,000
Australia
7,567,000
Russia
6,806,000
United Kingdom
6,159,000
Indonesia
5,599,000
Canada
4,479,000
Japan
4,421,000
New Zealand
3,831,000
Brazil
Km²
Country
3,682,000
Chile
3,442,000
Kiribati
3,269,000
Mexico
2,996,000
F. S. Micronesia
2,551,000
Denmark
2,402,000
Papua New Guinea
2,385,000
Norway
2,305,000
India
1,991,000
Marshall Islands
1,727,000
Portugal
+14
Level 76
Nov 14, 2014
Another great quiz!
+52
Level 76
Nov 23, 2015
China, by the way, is in 33rd place on 877,000 sq km. We only count undisputed EEZ's, so its claim for another 3,000,000 sq km (ie most) of the South China Sea is excluded because it is also contested by Malaysia, Brunei, Taiwan, Philippines and Vietnam.
+55
Level 67
Feb 26, 2020
China does not deserve that territory whatsoever
+26
Level 34
May 15, 2020
I agree, but what do you expect from China? They always want to take control of things.
+1
Level 53
Jul 5, 2023
You definitely got brainwashed by western media. It is USA that always takes control of everything.
+18
Level 42
Aug 1, 2023
Both countries are culprits of this
+14
Level 75
Mar 19, 2021
China? Sure. Now, how did France (for example) get on this list?
+9
Level 72
Aug 1, 2023
I mean what do you want them to do, force their overseas territories to become independent? It's not like the French aren't letting them vote on the matter, but being a French citizen has quite a few perks and not everyone wants to lose them.

The UK, on the other hand, conveniently stops doing independence referendums the second they have other plans for the are (cough cough BIOT).

+1
Level 65
Aug 6, 2023
They actually have territories instead of pulling outlandish borders out of their ass lol
+11
Level 45
Mar 19, 2021
You can assume its a bunch of overseas territories like French Polynesia or New Caledonia
+10
Level 56
Mar 19, 2021
They have a lot of islands in the Pacific, plus French Guyana in South America, and the mainland(metropolitan) France is also pretty big.
+6
Level 67
Mar 19, 2021
*Hides in American.*
+3
Level 52
Jan 26, 2022
yea thats like france slapping a claim on the baltic sea near st petersburg
+4
Level 56
Apr 7, 2022
@tshalla France got on this list because colonialism
+1
Level 53
Jul 5, 2023
Learn some history first. China obviously deserves it.
+9
Level 72
Aug 1, 2023
Name literally any reason China might possibly "deserve" the entire claim they have on the South China Sea. Because historically China's borders have been incredibly fluid and mainly based on a mixture of what the central government could hold on to and what regional powers were strong at the time, so just "learn some history" really doesn't cut it. I could just as easily claim that China deserves all the territory in Shaanxi (and nothing else) that the communists controlled in 1936 because learn some history.

The reality is that China is trying to annex more territory because the government wants more power. I do not blame any government for wanting more power, but that does not mean they automatically "deserve" to get that power. If China cooperated with any of the other countries in the region ever they might be able to negotiate a border that could satisfy both sides (to some degree) without people complaining. You don't need brainwashing to notice that China does not do this.

+10
Level 71
Mar 19, 2021
Kinda amazing that tiny countries like Micronesia and Kiribati have way larger EEZs than China. It's not that it doesn't make sense, I just find it interesting!
+3
Level 90
Nov 23, 2015
Okay, if this excludes external territories, please explain France to me.
+45
Level 77
Nov 23, 2015
It says "includes".
+3
Level 77
Nov 23, 2015
Now at least. If it said "excludes", then I'd struggle understanding Denmark.
+34
Level 76
Nov 23, 2015
It has always said "includes".
+1
Level 55
Mar 21, 2024
They probably saw the ex from external and thought it said exclude instead of include
+3
Level 43
Dec 3, 2015
I missed France!
+12
Level 56
Jan 29, 2016
Bow down to these naval empires!
+59
Level 66
Jan 29, 2016
Lol, the sun never sets on the Micronesian Empire!
+23
Level 69
Nov 5, 2020
KIRITANNIA RULES THE WAVES
+1
Level 65
Jan 29, 2016
Most quizzes accept America for United States...would you mind doing the same?
+21
Level 68
Jan 29, 2016
why typing America, if USA would be just fine?!
+36
Level 76
Jan 29, 2016
USA and United States both work, which people in every country agree on. Outside of the US, the term America generally refers to the whole continent (and these days 57% of Jetpunk's activity occurs outside of the US).
+8
Level 75
Jan 29, 2016
You're telling me if I tell someone outside of the US that I'm an American, they're going to next ask me which country I'm from? I don't think so, Jerry. The continents are North America and South America. My Canadian friends do not want to be called American but North American is fine with them, and my cousin from Panama prefers to be called a Panamanian. People from Australia aren't called Commonwealth of Australians. I don't understand why people don't get this.
+27
Level 36
Jan 29, 2016
Ander, in almost every language and culture outside of the english-speaking world, it is a single continent - America. That is how they are taught. Panama is Panamanian and also American, just as France is French and also European. In fact, in Spanish they have a word specifically for people from the US, because to them, the whole continent is American. Maybe do some fact-checking before you tell someone they're wrong:)
+10
Level 69
Jan 30, 2016
Actually, just weighing in for Mandarin, it's called měiguó; mei is transcription for "America" and guo just means country. This is, the USA. There are other words for the continents. And, I should also note, on the Chinese Wikipedia, North and South America are displayed separately on a map of the continents. But, in any case, being an English language site, do these other languages matter? I can't weigh in anywhere else, but in Australia, everybody assumes USA when you say American or America; I've never come across anyone with different usage.
+1
Level 47
Aug 1, 2023
agreed
+8
Level 76
Jan 31, 2016
This website addresses this issue, and it has entertaining feedback that varies between thoughtful and ranting!
+5
Level 54
Feb 1, 2016
It's a bit silly to be lectured on this by people who think Europe is a continent.
+11
Level 60
Feb 3, 2016
But Europe... is a continent?
+1
Level 76
Apr 17, 2023
which ocean separates it from asia
+4
Level 68
Aug 1, 2023
Europe is a continent because the vast majority of people agree it is. That's really the only definition of a continent. The same is true about oceans, by the way.
+1
Level 53
Feb 9, 2016
I guess that this argument arises from the fact that the country and the continents have the same name.
+12
Level 69
Feb 20, 2016
"people who think Europe is a continent", so, basically everyone?
+9
Level 82
Aug 11, 2016
Hard to think of a definition of continent that works for Europe. It's on the same tectonic plate as Asia and besides, using tectonic definitions, Japan's partially in N America. There's no particular divide between it and Asia, whereas very little land joins Asia to Africa or the two Americas (and there are now canals there). The Urals and Caucasus are generally given as divides, but if they are sufficient to divide continents, why is South Asia considered a part of Asia at all? The Indian subcontinent is more properly divided from Asia than Europe and it's well over half the size of our current smallest continent with more people living on it than any continent apart from Asia itself. Which brings us to human-based definitions of continents. If I go from north to south Georgia or west to east Russia, have I really witnessed more cultural change than going from Jerusalem to Ulaanbaatar? What about if I'm in Istanbul and cross the Bosporus? More than going from Vladivostok to Seoul?
+11
Level 76
May 24, 2017
I can't speak for other countries, but in the UK, America = the US. We say either N./S.America for the continents (we consider them to be two continents). When referring to both, we say "the Americas". People would just laugh at a Brazilian claiming to be an American to be honest.

China also considers America to be the US.

To be honest, I'm pretty sure most of the world thinks this way - it's mostly Latin America that has an issue with it.

+1
Level 81
Sep 7, 2018
I've had some all-night world problem solving debates on this subject. I've independently polled many Europeans, Asians, and Africans (not enough to make a real claim) and they all have said that if you say "I'm American" they assume you are from the U.S. and would not ask a follow up question. Many times in Italy people see me drinking a huge beer and they say "Deutsche?", I say "no," and then they say "Americano?" and I say "yes." When I have polled South Americans (mostly from Argentina) they take the view that anyone from North or South America is an American.
+1
Level 68
Aug 1, 2023
You can both agree that "America" is a continent and recognise that when someome says they're "American", what they probably mean is that they're from the US.
+1
Level 68
Aug 28, 2019
SNIX IS JOKING!!!!
+3
Level 79
Nov 30, 2019
According to Alexa, there are considerably more daily visitors to JetPunk from the UK than the US.
+2
Level 67
Mar 19, 2021
* 57% occurs outside AMERICA.
+2
Level 77
Mar 19, 2021
The problem here is that the United States is dumb and chose a name that causes endless confusion over its ambiguity by naming itself after the entire continent. Compare to the United States of Brazil or the Democratic People's Republic of Korea aka North Korea, which both refer unequivocally to a single geographic entity (Korean dispute notwithstanding). The solution here is not to call it either America or the United States, but something else like... the United States of Yellowstone (e.g.) or some other non-ambiguous name that refers exclusively to that country, thereby enabling us to not have to refer to the government. (Yes, there are two Congos, but that's a different situation.)
+1
Level 72
Aug 1, 2023
The two counter-examples you give are not different cases but instead are exactly the same.

In fact, the US pretty much just stole its name (and some of its government) idea from the Netherlands (and the united provinces thereof), which, prior to their borders being finalized, was a term generally used to refer to Belgium and sometimes Luxembourg (and bits of France and possibly Germany) as well as the territory now in the Netherlands. In English we now try to get around this problem by using Netherlands to mean the one in the country and "The Low Countries" to mean the other one. But "Netherlands" is just an anglicized version of the Dutch for "The Low Countries". So this solution only works by fudging it around awkwardly.

So guess what? This happens a lot. Same reason Saint Vincent insists on putting "and the Grenadines" in their name, or Greece threw a hissy fit about North Macedonia, or there are 2 Congos, or Dominicans are from 2 places or about a dozen other extant examples.

+1
Level 60
Mar 20, 2021
It is not because we call people American that we can call the country America.

And basically we don't.

America existed before the country.

+1
Level 56
Apr 7, 2022
@mahble The name is "(the) United States of America" so it's not our fault that people call the US "America"
+1
Level 60
Jul 13, 2022
I've seen some people bring in China/Chinese; I'll add in my 2 cents: in CJK-characters, it's like the difference between "America the continent" and "America the country". And meiguo's characters are "America Country".

That is to say, when you call someone American in Chinese, you're going to say they're "America Country"-ese, which is a completely different word than "America continent"-ese.

Long story short, this isn't an argument in Chinese, because they have different words for the 2.

+1
Level 56
Apr 7, 2022
"America" is a continent, not a country.
+1
Level 81
Jan 29, 2016
Tried "Papa" New Guinea, but it didn't work. I just can't spell. Only one I missed.
+3
Level 68
Jan 29, 2016
Yeah, that's the only one i didn't get. Though I tried "papau new guinea", which is what i've always known it as and every other quiz i've tried accepts this. I don't know why this one doesn't accept a clearly miniscule spelling mistake!
+8
Level 57
Jan 29, 2016
Try 'PNG' in future - nice easy type-in :)
+10
Level 53
Jul 9, 2021
The Independent State of Portable Network Graphics
+6
Level 66
Nov 21, 2021
IndependentState.PNG
+1
Level 81
Sep 7, 2018
I just took this quiz again almost 3 years later and I still missed Papua New Guinea, although this time I know how to spell it thanks to JetPunk.
+2
Level 81
Mar 21, 2021
Missed Papua New Guinea again!
+6
Level 57
Feb 1, 2016
Ratio quizzes on this would be fun - EEZ area to land area, and EEZ area to population.
+2
Level 72
May 21, 2020
Four years late but here's one! Countries by EEZ to Internal Area Ratio. Kudos for the idea - I saw this comment while looking at similar quizzes :)
+6
Level 43
Jul 25, 2016
Et oui, la France a beaucoup de territoire ! ;)
+2
Level 74
Mar 16, 2017
What?
+13
Level 76
Mar 16, 2017
I think he said Et oui, la France a beaucoup de territoire ! ;)
+3
Level 86
Oct 9, 2017
He should have said "Eh oui" though.
+2
Level 76
May 21, 2020
He did. He just spelt it wrong.
+3
Level 68
Mar 19, 2021
Actually, "eh oui" and "et oui" are both perfectly fine.
+4
Level 80
Jan 23, 2018
I completely forgot about French Polynesia and Greenland adding huge totals to France and Denmark.
+4
Level 55
Sep 7, 2018
C'est ki ka la plus grosse maintenant ?
+2
Level 70
Sep 7, 2018
What about the Philippines? Wikipedia at least lists its EEZ as 2,263,816 km.
+7
Level 66
Sep 7, 2018
they aren't including disputed EEZs, which the Philippines has.
+2
Level 44
Sep 7, 2018
Surprised not to see China on here, thought they had more of a presence in the southeast Asian seas with it being the South China Sea and all! Portugal too, I’m guessing they’re included because of overseas territory? The rest I was expecting.
+1
Level 29
Mar 19, 2021
The EEZ of the Azores, Madeira and mainland Portugal combined, makes up a big part of the Northern Atlantic :)
+3
Level 49
Sep 8, 2018
This surprises me - mostly countries that are missing on the list. I honestly thought more of them would have oceanic territory especially considering how large they are or how much coast they have-for example China or Argentina.
+3
Level 65
Sep 10, 2018
What about Netherlands and their special municipalities in the Caribbean sea? (Bonaire, Sint-Eustatius, Saba)
+3
Level 79
Nov 30, 2019
The Netherlands have only the 85th largest EEZ according to Sea Around Us, including these overseas territories.
+1
Level 66
Feb 26, 2020
That has a very interesting map! Cool to see it represented (I guess it cant be used on this quiz, cause then you basicly see what you need to guess, but nice to have it visualized :))
+3
Level 68
Aug 28, 2019
Nice, Portugal just snuck onto the quiz i see :)
+2
Level 65
Mar 21, 2020
I'm kinda surprised they made it ahead of Spain
+5
Level 72
Feb 3, 2021
Azores! Madeira! Nothing blocking their mileage. Canaries and Balearics have space that collides with other nations.
+1
Level 65
Mar 19, 2021
And with the Portuguese plans to expand its EEZ and territorial waters, it could actually go up on the ranking. If the UN validates the country's claim, an additional 2.1 million km2 will become part of its continental shelf. If so, only 3% of its territory would be terrestrial. :)
+1
Level 54
Mar 20, 2021
Actually, just to be accurate: In terms of international law, EEZs do not count as a state's sovereign territory (as opposed to its terrirorial waters, which do count).
+1
Level 65
Mar 21, 2020
Got Canada and Mexico in the last 3 seconds
+1
Level 56
Aug 13, 2020
Absolutely baffling. I'm amazed that France and the USA are so high, when you consider how small the French landmass is and how most of the USA has land borders on two sides. But I'm also surprised to see no South Africa or Argentina on the list.

I'm also surprised that France has so much more than Britain, if overseas territories are included. Are there so many overseas French territories? Or do they just cover more ocean space?

+3
Level 72
Feb 3, 2021
Think French Polynesia.
+1
Level 49
Mar 19, 2021
And small lonely stones like Clipperton, Kerguelen, Bouvet... Only pinguins and fishes
+1
Level 76
Sep 9, 2021
Bouvet's a territory of Norway, not France.
+1
Level 68
Mar 19, 2021
It's not just French Polynesia - it's that France has a many small islands that are otherwise very isolated.
+1
Level 29
Mar 19, 2021
For the USA, think Hawaii and Alaska.
+2
Level 60
Mar 22, 2021
The US has land borders on two sides, but the other two sides are gigantic and extend onto open ocean, plus the Alaskan coast, Hawaii, and US territories
+7
Level 84
Mar 19, 2021
Shocked not to see Liechtenstein on here.
+1
Level 43
Jan 24, 2024
I was counting on San Marino
+7
Level 66
Mar 19, 2021
What about the Holy See???
+12
Level 68
Mar 20, 2021
It's an inland see.
+5
Level 75
Mar 21, 2021
I see
+3
Level 71
Feb 4, 2023
Simple but educational. Really leaves an impression. Great job!

Also, no wonder France continues to be such a player on the world scene!

I made a quiz with a question relevant to this overall quiz. My discovery of the term EEZ, as it relates to a question on the quiz that I made, was very eye-opening.

For anybody interested...

https://www.jetpunk.com/user-quizzes/1346973/11-sovereign-states-of-lesser-oceania-quiz-usa-centric

+1
Level 67
Aug 1, 2023
Missed Papua New Guinea
+1
Level 45
Aug 9, 2023
tropy aya