The ten largest empires in history by peak land area, per Rein Taagepera's estimates — from the British Empire's 35.5 million km² in 1920 to the United States' 9.5 million km² in 1900.
The British Empire is the largest empire in history by peak land area, at 35.5 million km² in 1920. The Mongol Empire is second at 24.0 million km² and the Russian Empire third at 22.8 million km². The ranking uses estimated land area at greatest extent, mostly Rein Taagepera's figures as compiled in Wikipedia's List of largest empires, as of October 2026.
Empires have risen and fallen across every continent, some growing to control vast portions of the Earth's land surface. This list ranks the ten largest by their estimated land area at greatest extent. Almost every figure comes from political scientist Rein Taagepera, whose articles on the territorial extent of historical empires (1978–1997), and a 2024 book with Miroslav Nemčok, are the most widely cited dataset for empire size, as compiled in Wikipedia's List of largest empires. The British Empire at its 1920 peak covered about 26% of the world's land outside Antarctica; the Mongol Empire, at 24 million km², remains the largest contiguous land empire ever assembled.
The largest empire in history, the British Empire reached its peak extent in 1920 at about 35.5 million square kilometres — roughly 26% of the world's land outside Antarctica. Its territories spanned every inhabited continent, giving rise to the phrase 'the empire on which the sun never sets.'
The largest contiguous land empire in history, the Mongol Empire covered about 24 million square kilometres at its greatest extent, dated to 1270 by Turchin et al. or 1309 by Taagepera. Founded by Genghis Khan in 1206, it stretched from Eastern Europe to the Sea of Japan before fracturing into four khanates, including the Yuan dynasty.
The Russian Empire reached its peak in 1895 at about 22.8 million square kilometres, spanning Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Far East. Its successor, the Soviet Union, peaked slightly smaller at 22.3 million km² in 1945.
The Qing dynasty, China's last imperial dynasty, reached its greatest extent around 1790 at about 14.7 million square kilometres. Under the Qianlong Emperor it ruled China proper, Manchuria, Mongolia, Tibet and Xinjiang — the largest empire on this list ruled from China.
One of the first global empires, the Spanish Empire reached its peak around 1810 at about 13.7 million square kilometres, with vast territories in the Americas plus holdings in Europe, Africa and Asia.
France's second colonial empire, built from 1830 onward, reached about 11.5 million square kilometres in 1920 by Taagepera's estimate, with territories across Africa, Southeast Asia, the Caribbean and the Pacific — second only to Britain among colonial empires of its era.
The Abbasid Caliphate, which overthrew the Umayyads in 750 CE, inherited their territory at about 11.1 million square kilometres, from North Africa to Central Asia — tied with the Umayyad peak. The Abbasid era is remembered as the Islamic Golden Age, with Baghdad as its capital.
The Umayyad Caliphate reached about 11.1 million square kilometres around 720 CE — tied with the Abbasids and listed second alphabetically — stretching from the Iberian Peninsula in the west to the Indus River in the east.
The Yuan dynasty, founded by Kublai Khan after the Mongol conquest of China, covered about 11.0 million square kilometres around 1310, including China, Mongolia and parts of Siberia. It was one of the four successor khanates of the Mongol Empire.
Taagepera and Nemčok (2024) explicitly count the United States as an empire, putting its extent around 1900 at about 9.5 million square kilometres — after the acquisition of Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the Philippines. Its inclusion depends on that classification; without it, the Xiongnu Empire (9.0 million km², c. 176 BCE) would be tenth.
| # | Name | Peak Year | % of World Land | Contiguous? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | British Empire | 1920 | 26.3% | No |
| 2 | Mongol Empire | 1270 or 1309 | 17.8% | Yes |
| 3 | Russian Empire | 1895 | 16.9% | Yes |
| 4 | Qing Dynasty | 1790 | 10.9% | Yes |
| 5 | Spanish Empire | 1810 | 10.2% | No |
| 6 | Second French Colonial Empire | 1920 | 8.5% | No |
| 7 | Abbasid Caliphate | 750 | 8.2% | Yes |
| 8 | Umayyad Caliphate | 720 | 8.2% | Yes |
| 9 | Yuan Dynasty | 1310 | 8.2% | Yes |
| 10 | United States | 1900 | 7.1% | No |
Empires are ranked by estimated land area at their greatest extent, in millions of square kilometres, using the single point estimates in Wikipedia's 'List of largest empires' table (accessed 18 October 2026). Nine of the ten figures are Rein Taagepera's (Social Science Research 1978; Social Science History 1979; International Studies Quarterly 1997); the United States figure is from Taagepera & Nemčok, More People, Fewer States (Cambridge University Press, 2024), which explicitly treats the US as an empire. Size means the dry land over which the empire had some undisputed military and taxation prerogatives — controlled rather than merely claimed territory. Share of world land is the area divided by 134.74 million km² (Earth's land excluding Antarctica), the basis the source table uses. The Abbasid and Umayyad caliphates are tied at 11.1 million km² and are listed alphabetically at ranks 7 and 8. All figures are estimates; other scholars give different numbers for several of these empires. Rank 1 is the largest.
The British Empire, at about 35.5 million square kilometres in 1920 by Rein Taagepera's estimate — roughly 26% of the world's land outside Antarctica.
The Mongol Empire, at about 24 million square kilometres at its peak (1270 or 1309, depending on the estimate). Unlike the British Empire's overseas possessions, it was a single unbroken land mass stretching from Eastern Europe to the Sea of Japan.
Most commonly by land area at greatest extent, counting the dry land over which the empire had some undisputed military and taxation prerogatives rather than land it merely claimed. The most widely cited estimates are Rein Taagepera's, published between 1978 and 1997 and updated in a 2024 book with Miroslav Nemčok.
In the same dataset the Roman Empire peaked at about 5.0 million square kilometres (117 CE) and the Achaemenid Persian Empire at about 5.5 million (c. 500 BCE) — well below the 9.5 million needed to make this top 10. The largest ancient empire in the table is the Xiongnu, at about 9.0 million square kilometres around 176 BCE, just outside the list.
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