Several empires in human history have been contenders for the largest of all time, depending on definition and mode of measurement. Possible ways of measuring size include area, population, economy, and power. Of these, area is the most commonly used because it has a relatively precise definition and can be feasibly measured with some degree of accuracy; nevertheless, even area is limited in this regard because of the difficulty in defining the boundaries of empires due to things like the indirect nature of imperial control and sparsely inhabited or even uninhabited areas that may nominally have been controlled by an empire but not meaningfully ruled by it.
Estonian political scientist Rein Taagepera, who published a series of academic articles about the territorial extents of historical empires between 1978 and 1997, and a book in 2024, defined an empire in this context as "any relatively large sovereign political entity whose components are not sovereign" and its size as the area over which the empire has some undisputed military and taxation prerogatives. The list is not exhaustive as there is a lack of available data for several empires; for this reason and because of the inherent uncertainty in the estimates, no rankings are given.
Largest empires by land area For context, the land area of the Earth, excluding the continent of Antarctica, is .
Empires at their greatest extent
Empire size in this list is defined as the dry land area it controlled at the time, which may differ considerably from the area it claimed. For example: in the year 1800, European powers collectively claimed approximately % of the Earth's land surface that they did not effectively control. Where estimates vary, entries are sorted by the lowest estimate. Where more than one entry has the same area, they are listed alphabetically.
+ Empires by their maximum land area and year Empire Million km2 Million sq mi % of worldYearBritish Empire35.5Mongol Empire24.0 or Russian Empire22.8Qing dynasty14.7Spanish Empire13.7Second French colonial empire11.5Abbasid Caliphate11.1Umayyad Caliphate11.1Yuan dynasty11.0United States9.5Xiongnu Empire9.0Empire of BrazilEmpire of Japan7.4––3.285–Eastern Han dynasty6.5Ming dynasty6.5Rashidun Caliphate6.4First Turkic Khaganate6.0Jochi Khanate6.0Western Han dynasty6.0Achaemenid Empire5.5Second Portuguese Empire5.5Tang dynasty5.4Macedonian Empire5.2Ottoman Empire5.2Northern Yuan dynasty5.0Roman Empire5.0Xin dynasty4.7Tibetan Empire4.6Xianbei state4.5First Mexican Empire4.429Timurid Empire4.4Fatimid Caliphate4.1Eastern Turkic Khaganate4.0Hunnic Empire4.0Mughal Empire4.0Great Seljuk Empire3.9Seleucid Empire3.9Italian EmpireIlkhanate3.75Dzungar Khanate3.6Chagatai Khanate3.5 or Sasanian Empire3.5Western Turkic Khaganate3.5Western Xiongnu3.5First French colonial empire3.4Ghaznavid Empire3.4Maurya Empire3.4–5.0–– or Delhi Sultanate3.2German colonial empireNorthern Song dynasty3.1Uyghur Khaganate3.1Western Jin dynasty3.1Danish Empire3.0Sui dynasty3.0Safavid Empire2.9Samanid Empire2.85Eastern Jin dynasty2.8Median Empire2.8Parthian Empire2.81Rouran Khaganate2.8Byzantine Empire2.7–2.8–– or Indo-Scythian Kingdom2.6Liao dynasty2.6Greco-Bactrian Kingdom2.5Later Zhao2.5Maratha Empire2.5Belgian colonial empireJin dynasty (1115–1234)2.3Khwarazmian Empire2.3–3.6–– or Qin dynasty2.3Dutch Empire2.1First French Empire2.1Kievan Rus'2.1Mamluk Sultanate2.1 or Southern Song dynasty2.1Third Portuguese Empire2.1Almohad Caliphate2.0–2.3–– or Cao Wei2.0Former Qin2.0Former Zhao2.0Ghurid dynasty2.0Inca Empire2.0Kushan Empire2.0–2.5––Liu Song dynasty2.0Northern Wei2.0Western Roman Empire2.0Ayyubid dynasty1.7–2.0–– or Gupta Empire1.7–3.5–– or Hephthalite Empire1.7–4.0–– or Buyid dynasty1.6Eastern Wu1.5Northern Qi1.5Northern Xiongnu1.5Northern Zhou1.5Neo-Assyrian Empire1.4Eastern Maurya Kingdom1.3Liang dynasty1.3, , or Qajar Empire0.50Kingdom of Aksum1.25Shang dynasty1.25Francia1.2Srivijaya1.2Indo-Greek Kingdom1.1Mali Empire1.1Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth1.1 or Almoravid dynasty1.0Pushyabhuti dynasty1.0 or Gurjara-Pratihara dynasty1.0Holy Roman Empire1.0Khazar Khanate1.0–3.0–– or Khmer Empire1.0New Kingdom of Egypt1.0 or Ptolemaic Kingdom1.0Qara Khitai1.0–1.5–– or Scythia1.0Shu Han1.0Tahirid dynasty1.0Western Xia1.0Swedish Empire0.99Kingdom of Armenia0.9 Akkadian Empire0.8Avar Khaganate0.8Chu0.8Huns0.8Songhai Empire0.8Hyksos0.65Twenty-sixth Dynasty of Egypt0.65Rozvi Empire0.624Austro-Hungarian EmpireCaliphate of Córdoba0.6First Portuguese Empire0.6Visigothic Kingdom0.6Zhou dynasty0.55Sikh Empire0.20Emirate of Córdoba0.5Kosala0.5Lydia0.5Magadha0.5Middle Kingdom of Egypt0.5Neo-Babylonian Empire0.5Satavahana dynasty0.5Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt0.5Western Satraps0.5New Hittite Kingdom0.45Xia dynasty0.45Bulgarian Empire0.4Kingdom of France (Middle Ages)0.4Middle Assyrian Empire0.4Old Kingdom of Egypt0.4Sokoto Caliphate0.4Latin Empire0.35Ancient Carthage0.3Indus Valley Civilisation0.3Mitanni0.3Ashanti Empire0.25First Babylonian Empire0.25Aztec Empire0.22Zulu Empire0.08Elamite Empire0.2Phrygia0.2Second Dynasty of Isin0.2Urartu0.2Eastern Zhou0.15Middle Hittite Kingdom0.15Old Assyrian Empire0.15Old Hittite Empire0.15Oyo Empire0.15Bornu Empire0.05Larsa0.1Neo-Sumerian Empire0.1Tarascan empire0.075Lagash0.05Sumer0.05
Timeline of largest empires to date The earliest empire which can with certainty be stated to have been larger than all previous empires was that of Upper and Lower Egypt, which covered ten times the area of the previous largest civilisation around the year 3000 BC.
+ Timeline of largest empires Empire Million km2 Million sq mi YearUpper and Lower Egypt0.1Old Kingdom of Egypt0.250.4Akkadian Empire0.650.8New Kingdom of Egypt1.0Shang dynasty1.25Neo-Assyrian Empire1.4Median Empire2.8Achaemenid Empire3.65.5Xiongnu Empire9.0Umayyad Caliphate11.1Mongol Empire13.524.0British Empire24.535.5
Timeline of largest empires at the time + Land area during time as largest empire Empire Million km2 Million sq mi Approximate periodUpper Egypt0.1Old Kingdom of Egypt0.25–0.4–Akkadian Empire0.2–0.6–Indus Valley Civilisation0.15Middle Kingdom of Egypt0.2–0.5–Xia dynasty0.4Hyksos0.65New Kingdom of Egypt0.65–1.0–Shang dynasty0.9–1.1–New Kingdom of Egypt0.5–0.6–Zhou dynasty0.35–0.45–Neo-Assyrian Empire0.4–1.4–Median Empire3.0Achaemenid Empire2.5–5.5–Macedonian Empire5.2Seleucid Empire4.0Maurya Empire3.5Han dynasty2.5Xiongnu5.7Han dynasty4.2–6.5– ADRoman Empire4.4–Sasanian Empire3.5Hunnic Empire4.0Sasanian Empire3.5Göktürk Khaganate3.0–5.2––Rashidun Caliphate5.2Umayyad Caliphate9.0–11.0––Abbasid Caliphate8.3–11.0––Tibet2.5–4.7––Song dynasty3.0Seljuk Empire3.0–4.0––Tibet2.5Jin dynasty (1115–1234)2.3Mongol Empire18.0–24.0––Yuan dynasty11.0Timurid Empire4.0Ming dynasty4.7–6.5––Ottoman Empire4.3Tsardom of Russia6.0–12.0––Russian Empire14.0–17.0––British Empire23.0–34.0––Soviet Union22.5–
Largest empires by share of world population
Because of the trend of increasing world population over time, absolute population figures are for some purposes less relevant for comparison between different empires than their respective shares of the world population at the time. For the majority of the time since roughly 400 BC, the two most populous empires' combined share of the world population has been 30–40%. Most of the time, the most populous empire has been located in China. + Empire population as percentage of world populationEmpirePercentageYearQing dynasty37Northern Song dynasty33Western Han dynasty32Mongol Empire31Roman Empire30Jin dynasty (266–420)28Ming dynasty28Qin dynasty24Mughal Empire24Tang dynasty23Delhi Sultanate23British Empire23Empire of Japan20Maurya Empire19Former Qin19Northern Zhou16Macedonian Empire15Empire of Harsha15Gupta Empire13Northern Wei13Umayyad Caliphate13Achaemenid Empire12Former Yan12Jin dynasty (1115–1234)12Nazi Germany12
See also Lists of political and geographic subdivisions by total area List of countries and dependencies by area List of countries and dependencies by population Political history of the world
References