Which country has the longest coastline? Well, it depends on what you include, says Stuart Blackman
Which country has the longest coastline?
‘Coastlines’ are tricky to pin down. Do you measure them around every tiny inlet? Every jutting rock? At the high- or low- tide line?
The answer to this is key to finding out which country has the longest coastline in the world.
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Estimates for any given country vary wildly. The coast of Norway, for example, is listed as the second longest (83,281km) by the CIA’s World Factbook, but only the seventh longest (53,199km) by the World Resources Institute (WRI).
Which country has the longest coastline?
The longest coastline of all – measuring 202,080km (according to the CIA) or 265,523km (as stated by the WRI) – belongs to Canada, a big country with very crinkly edges and many offshore islands. It’s surrounded by three oceans: the Arctic ocean, Atlantic ocean and Pacific ocean.
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