If you have a good knowledge of geography, anyone can answer the question of which country is the largest (or smallest) on Earth. However, do you know which country is the most rectangular and which is the most circular?
Accordingly, this is considered the starting point of a research project by Australian statistician David Barry, who stumbled upon a comment on a friend’s Facebook post claiming that Turkey is “a country with a shape particularly resembling a rectangle.”
Realizing that there was no accurate source on “countries with very straight borders” available online, he initiated his own project to compare the so-called “rectangular shapes of countries.”
According to his research, the country with the border shape most resembling a rectangle in the world is Egypt, with a ratio of up to 95.5%. Following Egypt are Vatican City, Sint Maarten, Lesotho, Yemen, Ghana, North Macedonia, Côte d’Ivoire, Poland, and Nauru.
Egypt is considered the country most resembling a rectangle in the world. (Photo: IFL Science).
Turkey, the “initial inspiration” behind the project, has actually dropped to 15th place on the list of countries with rectangular shapes. In the case of the United States, the country ranks 169th, with a matching ratio of 73.5%. However, this is primarily due to the U.S. having states like Alaska, Hawaii, and offshore territories.
Barry admits that his work is not perfect. The algorithmic method he used in his research also means that some errors may have occurred, especially when considering countries with borders formed by many smaller islands, such as in the case of Italy.
Which country is the most circular in the world?
The most circular country in the world is Sierra Leone.
Barry’s project on “rectangular countries” caught the attention of Gonzalo Ciruelos, who was inspired to use similar statistical methods to answer another less frequently asked geographical question: Which country is the most circular?
According to a post by Ciruelos, the most circular country in the world is Sierra Leone, with a circularity of 93.4%. Following Sierra Leone are Nauru, Zimbabwe, Vatican City, Poland, the disputed Scarborough Shoal, Côte d’Ivoire, Suriname, Eswatini, and Uruguay.
