# What country is the roundest?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-country-is-the-roundest/650836
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [February 19, 2013, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-country-is-the-roundest/650836 "2013-02-19T22:11:54Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)
#### Post date: [February 19, 2013, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-country-is-the-roundest/650836/1 "2013-02-19T22:11:54Z")
See subject. As in border shape. An important question that came to me while falling asleep. Help me fight my ignorance.
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### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [February 19, 2013, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-country-is-the-roundest/650836/2 "2013-02-19T22:22:08Z")
Poland would be my first guess. Or Lesotho.
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### Author:  [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)
#### Post date: [February 19, 2013, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-country-is-the-roundest/650836/3 "2013-02-19T22:23:27Z")
The Vatican City State?
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### Author:  [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)
#### Post date: [February 19, 2013, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-country-is-the-roundest/650836/4 "2013-02-19T22:28:06Z")
[Nauru](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Nauru-districts-fr.svg) is very round, if not very circular.
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### Author:  [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)
#### Post date: [February 19, 2013, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-country-is-the-roundest/650836/5 "2013-02-19T22:28:21Z")
Uruguay is roundish, but I have to go with Sierra Leone.
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### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [February 19, 2013, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-country-is-the-roundest/650836/6 "2013-02-19T22:31:27Z")
> [@silenus](#):
>
> Poland would be my first guess. Or Lesotho.
This is actually a fascinating question. I would love for it to be Poland, but I suspect it isn’t. What about Zimbabwe or Cote d’Ivoire? Or, more likely, some random island I have limited knowledge of?
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### Author:  [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)
#### Post date: [February 19, 2013, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-country-is-the-roundest/650836/7 "2013-02-19T22:31:40Z")
Of countries that are a decent size, i.e. fairly bigger than the average US state, I’d say it’s Zimbabwe, followed by Poland. Of ones that are around state-sized or smaller, I’d say the nod goes to Lesotho or Swaziland. Vatican City and Andorra are also basically round, but have much jaggered edges on a small scale than Lesotho or Swaziland do.
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### Author:  [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)
#### Post date: [February 19, 2013, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-country-is-the-roundest/650836/8 "2013-02-19T22:38:47Z")
Isn’t Vatican City square? That ain’t round, last time I checked.
Swaziland is a good candidate.
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### Author:  [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)
#### Post date: [February 19, 2013, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-country-is-the-roundest/650836/9 "2013-02-19T23:01:34Z")
What about islands? Iceland is pretty round…
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### Author:  [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)
#### Post date: [February 19, 2013, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-country-is-the-roundest/650836/10 "2013-02-19T23:03:58Z")
[Sri Lanka](http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=Sri+Lanka&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&hnear=Sri+Lanka&gl=uk&t=h&z=7) ain’t too bad.
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### Author:  [@Pasta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pasta)
#### Post date: [February 19, 2013, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-country-is-the-roundest/650836/11 "2013-02-19T23:26:23Z")
I can’t seem to find a list of countries by total border length. I can find land border length but not land+maritime border length. If you could find such a list, then the quantity _R_=(border length)[sup]2[/sup]/(area) is one way to quantify the roundness, with a circular country having _R_ = 4\*pi = 12.57 and non-circular countries having larger values.
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### Author:  [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2013, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-country-is-the-roundest/650836/12 "2013-02-20T00:04:11Z")
> [@Pasta](#):
>
> I can’t seem to find a list of countries by total border length. I can find land border length but not land+maritime border length. If you could find such a list, then the quantity _R_=(border length)[sup]2[/sup]/(area) is one way to quantify the roundness, with a circular country having _R_ = 4\*pi = 12.57 and non-circular countries having larger values.
The CIA has (or had – I downloaded a version some years ago) on-line data which gives land area, enclosed lake area, land boundary length, coastline, and (in a few cases) lengths of border with inland sea.
There are problems (beyond just parsing the data :smack: ). Note that the coastline of even a very roundish country will be bumpy; that coastline measurements can vary; and that for two circular coastlines of equivalent scaled bumpiness, the larger may be likely to have disproportionately longer measured coastline!
Despite these difficulties I went ahead and did the obvious arithmetic. Various data idiosyncrasies render the results doubtful, but some of the countries that scored well were:
Niue, Swaziland, Macedonia, Zimbabwe
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### Author:  [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2013, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-country-is-the-roundest/650836/13 "2013-02-20T00:12:45Z")
> [@Pasta](#):
>
> I can’t seem to find a list of countries by total border length. I can find land border length but not land+maritime border length.
[It is impossible to make a rigorous list.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coastline_paradox) Borders can only be measured without ambiguity when they are defined by calculated points and lines, not natural features.
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### Author:  [@moriah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moriah)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2013, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-country-is-the-roundest/650836/14 "2013-02-20T00:46:22Z")
[Here, this looks\* like it can help.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_territories_by_border/area_ratio)
\*I said ‘looks’ like it. Never said it was actually helpful.
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### Author:  [@Pasta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pasta)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2013, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-country-is-the-roundest/650836/15 "2013-02-20T00:53:01Z")
> [@Peremensoe](#):
>
> [It is impossible to make a rigorous list.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coastline_paradox) Borders can only be measured without ambiguity when they are defined by calculated points and lines, not natural features.
I’d be happy with an infrared cutoff at the scale of a few hundred meters – the sort of minimum scale of relevance when you eyeball a country on a map.
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### Author:  [@ltfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ltfire)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2013, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-country-is-the-roundest/650836/16 "2013-02-20T00:56:49Z")
OHIO is round on the ends and high in the middle.
…I’m sorry…🆒
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### Author:  [@RadicalPi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RadicalPi)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2013, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-country-is-the-roundest/650836/17 "2013-02-20T01:10:07Z")
A way to answer this question without worrying about the coastline measurement would be to figure out which country takes up the largest amount of space percentagewise of the smallest circle that contains the whole country. Not that I have any way of figuring out which country that is.
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### Author:  [@j\_sum1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j_sum1)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2013, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-country-is-the-roundest/650836/18 "2013-02-20T01:14:58Z")
Not round but definitely circular…
[http://www.mfe.govt.nz/publications/oceans/offshore-options-jun05/html/figure-1.html](http://www.mfe.govt.nz/publications/oceans/offshore-options-jun05/html/figure-1.html)
NZ lays claim to an economic zone that is defined by a radius of 200 nautical miles.
Now, if any small island nations do the same, then that would definitely be the winner.
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### Author:  [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2013, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-country-is-the-roundest/650836/19 "2013-02-20T01:30:44Z")
> [@Pasta](#):
>
> I’d be happy with an infrared cutoff at the scale of a few hundred meters – the sort of minimum scale of relevance when you eyeball a country on a map.
Depends how big a map, doesn’t it?
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### Author:  [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2013, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-country-is-the-roundest/650836/20 "2013-02-20T13:07:35Z")
If you flip Zimbabwe horizontally, then rotate it about 30 degrees clockwise, it looks uncannily similar to Ethiopia.
And Ethiopia looks like a [duck](http://0.tqn.com/d/geography/1/0/7/K/ethiopia.jpg).
I’m not sure what this proves, but they are both quite round. Spain is also pretty round. If they made Galicia and Catalonia independent then it would be a [clear winner](http://www.historiae.org/images/Spain-regions2_000.jpg) (and also look less like a pair of knickers hanging on a washing line).
Edit:
> [@j\_sum1](#):
>
> Not round but definitely circular…
> [http://www.mfe.govt.nz/publications/.../figure-1.html](http://www.mfe.govt.nz/publications/.../figure-1.html)
That looks like a very fat stick figure playing football.
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