Far Off
The 10 closest countries in the world (2026)
Spain and Morocco are separated by roughly 250 m of water at Perejil islet, the smallest gap between two countries. Here are the ten closest pairs, ranked.
7 min read Read the articleDistance records
Two superpowers less than four kilometres apart, and a patch of ocean more than 2,600 kilometres from any land.
Distance records read in both directions. There are the far ones, easy to picture, and the near ones, which surprise far more: two countries that agree on nothing can sit within binocular range of each other.
These extremes are not trivia. They trace the real shape of the planet, the one wall maps flatten and political borders hide.
The planet at its extremes
- 3.8 km separate Russia’s Big Diomede from America’s Little Diomede, in the Bering Strait.
- 2,688 km between Point Nemo, in the South Pacific, and the nearest dry land.
- About 400 km separate Point Nemo from the International Space Station when it passes overhead: the nearest humans are often in orbit.
- 2,100 km between Perth and Adelaide, the two closest major Australian cities.
- 20,015 km: the distance between two antipodal points, the maximum reachable on Earth.
Articles on this topic
Frequently asked questions about distance records
Which two countries are closest to each other?
Russia and the United States. Their territories almost touch in the Bering Strait, where Russia’s Big Diomede and America’s Little Diomede lie 3.8 kilometres apart. The International Date Line runs between them, putting nearly 21 hours between one island and the other.
What is the furthest place from any land?
Point Nemo, in the South Pacific, at 48°52′ south and 123°23′ west. The nearest dry land lies 2,688 kilometres away, split between an island in the Pitcairn group, an islet off Easter Island and a stretch of Antarctic coast.
What is the most isolated city in the world?
Perth, in Western Australia, is the usual answer: the nearest large city, Adelaide, is around 2,100 kilometres away. Honolulu and Punta Arenas are the other serious candidates, depending on whether you measure isolation from another city or from a continent.
What is the greatest possible distance between two points on Earth?
About 20,015 kilometres, half the circumference of the globe. Two points that far apart are antipodal: diametrically opposite, with no surface path between any two places able to be longer.
Why is the most remote place in the world out at sea?
Because dry land covers only 29% of the globe and is concentrated in the northern hemisphere. The South Pacific is the largest continuous stretch without land, which mechanically makes it the place where you can be furthest from everything.