Big And Small Countries - Stage 5 Comprehension Pack PDF

STAGE 5 Unit focus: Countries Text focus: Information Text Big And Small Countries There are 195 countries recognised in the world today. When it comes to working out, which are the...

STAGE 5 Unit focus: Countries Text focus: Information Text Big And Small Countries There are 195 countries recognised in the world today. When it comes to working out, which are the largest and smallest, there are a couple of ways that we can do it. We can look at how much land each country occupies or how many people live there. Some countries are more heavily-populated than others, which means that they pack more people into a smaller area. For instance, the UK crams 276 people into each kilometre on average, whereas the United States only has 37 people in the same area. The Biggest Countries The largest country in the world when we look at the area that it covers is Russia. It covers over 17 million square kilometres and accounts for 11% of the entire landmass of Earth! A long way behind Russia, Canada and China occupy the second and third spots for size. Canada covers 9.9 million kilometres squared, but only 9 million of those are land; the rest is water. China has a smaller total size of 9.7 million kilometres squared, but 9.4 million kilometres is land. By comparison, the United Kingdom covers a paltry 243,000 square kilometres. The Smallest Countries There are a handful of countries that are very small compared to the rest. The smallest of them all is the Vatican City State, also called the Holy See. This is where the Pope lives and is the seat of the Catholic religion (see means seat in this context). In total, Vatican City State covers less than half a square kilometre. The next smallest is Monaco, which covers 2 square kilometres, then Gibraltar, which takes up 6.8 square kilometres. Monaco and Vatican aren’t islands, but most of the other smallest countries are islands dotted around the world. Not all islands are their own countries, but many are. The Most Populated Countries A There are nearly 8 billion people in the world, but they aren’t evenly ding ro Rea und all resources ©2023 Literacy Shed e um C u r r ic ul Th http://www.literacyshedplus.com distributed across the globe. China has the largest population of any country, with just over 1.4 billion people. That means that about a sixth of all people on Earth live in China. India isn’t far behind, with just under 1.4 billion people. After that, there is a significant drop to third place, where the United States of America sits with 331 million people. The United Kingdom has a population of around 68 million. The Least Populated Countries As well as being one of the smallest countries in the world, it’s perhaps no surprise that Vatican City State also has the smallest population. Only around 800 people call it home. Even though it is only marginally larger than the Vatican, Monaco has a population of around 37,000. A Snug Fit The most densely populated place in the world is a part of China called Macau, which manages to fit 21,000 people into each square kilometre. Surprisingly, Monaco is second on the list, despite being the second smallest country in the world. It somehow squeezes 36,000 people into its 2 square kilometre area, meaning there are 18,000 people per square kilometre. RETRIEVAL FOCUS 1. How many countries are there in the world? 2. How many people share each kilometre in the United States? 3. Which is the smallest country by size? 4. How many people are there in the world? 5. Which country has the second most people? VIPERS QUESTIONS V Find and copy a word in the “The Biggest Countries” section that means “very small”. V Which phrase tells the reader that Monaco is bigger than the Vatican, but not by much? P Why might “population density” matter to people living there? I Why might there be confusion over whether China or Canada is larger? S What is the difference between comparing countries by size and by how many people there are? all resources ©2023 Literacy Shed http://www.literacyshedplus.com