1
Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region
- Land area (10,000 km²)
- 166.49
- Capital
- 乌鲁木齐
- Population (10,000; 2020 census)
- 2585.23
HomeGeography & CitiesTop 10 Province-Level Divisions of China by Area (Provincial Published Figures)
Top 10Updated October 15, 2026
Top 10 Province-Level Divisions of China by Area (Provincial Published Figures)
The ten largest province-level divisions of China (provinces and autonomous regions) ordered by the land area published on each government’s own portal, with resident population from the 7th national census (1 November 2020). Areas use the “provincial published figure” basis: publication years on the portals range from 2003 to 2025 and no single-year survey version exists, so the table orders the published values as stated and cites the exact passage for every row.
Top 3
- 1Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region
- 2Tibet Autonomous Region
- 3Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region
Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region
1
Tibet Autonomous Region
2
Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region
3
About this ranking
- Ranking type
- Data ranking
- Data as of
- October 15, 2026
- Last source review
- October 15, 2026
Each provincial government portal’s profile page was opened directly (Xinjiang’s portal is unreachable, 403; its area was taken from the State Council Information Office white paper as republished verbatim on the NEAC site), the area sentence was read and archived (nine pages keep local SHA-256 archives), and values plus each province’s own “Nth nationally” claim were checked row by row (Tibet 2nd, Inner Mongolia 3rd, Qinghai 4th, Sichuan 5th, Heilongjiang 6th, Hunan 10th — all consistent). Populations were checked row by row against census bulletin No.3 counts in persons; the 10,000-persons column is converted and shown to two decimals. The candidate set is all 34 province-level divisions by published area: 11th-place Shaanxi (20.56) and 12th-place Hebei (18.88) were both checked on official pages, so the cutoff is explicit with no tie. Heilongjiang’s published basis includes Jiagedaqi and Songling districts (geographically inside Inner Mongolia), which matters for the comparison with 7th-place Gansu and is stated here. Portal publication years differ (Qinghai 2013, Inner Mongolia 2018, Hunan 2017, Gansu 2022, Shaanxi 2020, the Xinjiang white paper 2003, and others), so no single survey year exists and dataAsOf is the retrieval date 2026-10-15. The unverified “geographic note” claims column (border lengths, elevation ranges, karst shares) has been removed; capitals are stable administrative common knowledge and remain. All ten previous values were confirmed correct; subjects and item IDs are unchanged.
References: 13. Page edits do not imply that the underlying data is newer.
Change history
- All ten area and census-population values matched their official sources row by row (provincial portal profile pages and census bulletin No.3), but the previous source entries were untraceable (a gov.cn column with no area table, a Wikipedia list, an aggregate pseudo-entry) and the table carried unverified geographic-note claims and omitted the Heilongjiang scope. This batch replaces the sources with twelve verifiable official pages, drops the claims column, adds the Jiagedaqi/Songling scope note and the Shaanxi/Hebei cutoff boundary; values, subjects and item IDs are unchanged. [corpus433:224de9360e7424282ee510ce7892dababba490f2f0b78b29f2a261146acfbf7b]
Interesting Facts & Summary
Xinjiang leads at 1.6649 million km², about 7.9 times tenth-place Hunan (211,800 km²). The top four — Xinjiang, Tibet, Inner Mongolia and Qinghai — total about 4.773 million km², roughly half of China’s land area, yet only about 59.5 million census residents. Heilongjiang’s published figure (473,000 km²) includes the Jiagedaqi and Songling districts that geographically lie within Inner Mongolia. No tie at the cutoff: Hunan (21.18) stands above Shaanxi (20.56, 11th) and Hebei (18.88, 12th), both checked against official pages. Every area and population value of the previous table matched its official source on row-by-row checking; this batch replaces the untraceable source entries and removes the unverified “geographic note” claims column.
2
Tibet Autonomous Region
- Land area (10,000 km²)
- 120.28
- Capital
- 拉萨
- Population (10,000; 2020 census)
- 364.81
3
| Rank | Province-level division | Land area (10,000 km²) | Capital | Population (10,000; 2020 census) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region | 166.49 | 乌鲁木齐 | 2585.23 |
| 2 | Tibet Autonomous Region | 120.28 | 拉萨 | 364.81 |
| 3 | Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region | 118.3 | 呼和浩特 | 2404.92 |
| 4 | Qinghai | 72.23 | 西宁 | 592.4 |
| 5 | Sichuan | 48.6 | 成都 | 8367.49 |
| 6 | Heilongjiang | 47.3 | 哈尔滨 | 3185.01 |
| 7 | Gansu | 42.58 | 兰州 | 2501.98 |
| 8 | Yunnan | 39.41 | 昆明 | 4720.93 |
| 9 | Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region | 23.76 | 南宁 | 5012.68 |
| 10 | Hunan | 21.18 | 长沙 | 6644.49 |
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Sources
- S1 · 国务院新闻办公室（国家民族事务委员会网站转载）新疆的历史与发展（白皮书）
新疆政府门户不可达（403），面积引自国新办 2003 年 5 月白皮书原文“面积166.49万平方公里，占中国国土面积六分之一”；本地经 WebFetch 打开原文核对。
Accessed: 2026-10-15 - Accessed: 2026-10-15
- Published: 2018-07-04Accessed: 2026-10-15
- Published: 2013-04-12Accessed: 2026-10-15
- Accessed: 2026-10-15
- S6 · 黑龙江省人民政府门户网站走进黑龙江·地理特征
“全省土地总面积47.3万平方千米（含加格达奇和松岭区），居全国第6位”；本地存档 hlj-dltz.html。口径注明影响与第 7 位的比较，已写入方法。
Accessed: 2026-10-15 - Published: 2022-03Accessed: 2026-10-15
- Accessed: 2026-10-15
- Accessed: 2026-10-15
- Published: 2017-11-26Accessed: 2026-10-15
- S11 · 国家统计局第七次全国人口普查公报（第三号）——地区人口情况
2020-11-01 普查时点常住人口原值（人）：新疆 25852345、西藏 3648100、内蒙古 24049155、青海 5923957、四川 83674866、黑龙江 31850088、甘肃 25019831、云南 47209277、广西 50126804、湖南 66444864；表内万人列由原值换算并保留两位小数。
Published: 2021-05-11Accessed: 2026-10-15 - Accessed: 2026-10-15
- S13 · 河北省人民政府河北省人民政府门户网站（首页省情摘要）
第 12 位边界证据：“面积为18.88万平方千米”；本地存档 c-hebei-1.html。18.88 < 20.56（陕西），截止边界明确。
Accessed: 2026-10-15
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