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How big is Vatican City?

1.045 kilometres!

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Vatican City

Vatican City is the smallest country in the world, an independent state that lies entirely within the city of Rome, in Italy. It is a little more than 1 kilometer long: its greatest length is 1,045 meters (3,428 feet), and its greatest width is 850 meters (2,789 feet). The pope, the head of the Catholic Church, lives there.

Size

The Holy See, the central government of the Catholic Church, gives the length and width above. It also gives the area of the territory as 0.44 square kilometers (44 hectares, or about 109 acres). Vatican City is the smallest independent state in the world both by area and by population, as of 2026.

For most of its length, the border follows the Vatican's walls. In Saint Peter's Square, which is part of the state, the border is a white marble line on the ground that joins the two curved rows of columns around the square. The land is not flat. It sits on a low hill near the Tiber River, and it rises from 19 meters above sea level in Saint Peter's Square to 77 meters at the top of the Vatican Gardens.

Size comparisons

  • Laid on its side, the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building at 828 meters (2,717 feet), would reach about four-fifths of the way along Vatican City.
  • A little more than three Eiffel Towers, each 330 meters (1,083 feet) tall, laid end to end would span its length.
  • About nine and a half American football fields, end zones included, would fit end to end along it.
  • Central Park in New York City covers 843 acres (3.4 square kilometers), nearly eight times the area of Vatican City.

How it became a country

The popes' ties to the Vatican are far older than the country. In 1279, Pope Nicholas III moved the papal residence there from the Lateran Palace and had new walls built to defend it. Vatican City became a separate country much later.

The state was created by the Lateran Treaty between the Holy See and Italy, signed on February 11, 1929, and ratified on June 7, 1929. The treaty recognized it as a sovereign state. Its purpose was to give the Holy See an "absolute and visible independence" from any other power.

Inside the walls

Saint Peter's Basilica stands over the burial place of Saint Peter. The emperor Constantine built the first basilica there between 324 and 326, and the present church replaced it in the 16th and 17th centuries. The Vatican Gardens cover about half of the territory. The whole state has been on UNESCO's World Heritage List since 1984.

At the end of 2024, 882 people lived in Vatican City. There are five entrances, guarded by the Pontifical Swiss Guard and the Gendarmerie, the state's police force. Many offices of the Holy See do not fit inside and are in buildings elsewhere in Rome.

Sources

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