Which country has the longest coastline in the world?

A coastline is the boundary where a country's land meets the sea. Some countries have very little coast, and some have none at all. But one country has more coastline than any other in the world, by an enormous margin: Canada. Its shoreline stretches for an almost unbelievable distance.

Canada's total coastline measures about 202,000 kilometers. That figure is so large it is hard to grasp. It is far longer than the coastline of any other country, more than double that of the next nation on the list. If you tried to walk the entire Canadian coastline, it would take many years. No other country comes close to this record.

Canada is the second largest country in the world by area, so a long coastline is no surprise. But its size alone does not explain the record. The real reason is the shape of its coast. Canada borders three different oceans: the Atlantic, the Pacific, and the Arctic. More importantly, its northern region is made up of a vast collection of islands, the Arctic Archipelago, containing tens of thousands of islands. Every island adds its own shoreline, and the coast is also full of deep bays, inlets, and fjords. All these twists and turns add up to an enormous total length.

There is a fascinating idea connected to measuring coastlines, known as the coastline paradox. The length of a coastline actually depends on how closely you measure it. If you measure with a long ruler, you miss the small bends and get a shorter figure. If you measure with a short ruler, you capture every tiny curve and get a much longer figure. This is why coastline measurements can vary. But however it is measured, Canada always comes out far ahead as the country with the longest coastline.

This article was written using information from Wikipedia.