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How big is Westeros compared to the USA


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Curious... do we have any idea of the size of Westeros? Can anyone give a comparison between Westeros and say, the East Coast of the USA? Is it like Dorne to the Wall is Florida to Maine? Or DC to Boston? or is it the size of Britain (since it looks so much like it)?

I'm kind of confused because for some characters, it seems like it takes forever for them to travel anywhere, while others (ahem Littlefinger) seem to have their own private jet. Of course, the books don't specifically tell us how much time elapses between each POV chapter, so maybe there is no way of knowing this, but was curious nonetheless.

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Curious... do we have any idea of the size of Westeros? Can anyone give a comparison between Westeros and say, the East Coast of the USA? Is it like Dorne to the Wall is Florida to Maine? Or DC to Boston? or is it the size of Britain (since it looks so much like it)?

I'm kind of confused because for some characters, it seems like it takes forever for them to travel anywhere, while others (ahem Littlefinger) seem to have their own private jet. Of course, the books don't specifically tell us how much time elapses between each POV chapter, so maybe there is no way of knowing this, but was curious nonetheless.

I don't need a private jet, I just climb the ladder.
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It's frequently said that the Wall is 100 leagues long, i.e. 300 miles. Apply that to any of the "official" maps. (The distances are absurdly long IMHO).

What's absurd about them? Is Russia (much bigger than Westeros) absurdly big in your eyes? :P

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Westeros and TV-Essos compared to both USA and UK.

That's an old picture that's actually nonsense. The scale is incorrectly applied, making Westeros seem smaller than it actually is.

It's a bit off. If you put the Wall on the North Cape of Norway, the south coast of Dorne should be somewhere around Marrakesh in Morocco.

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If the Wall is really 100 leagues long, that would make the known portion of Westeros (from the southernmost tip of Dorne to the Wall, since we don't know how big the Land of Always Winter is) about 1084 leagues* long (6022 km, 3742 miles).

That's roughly the same distance as from the tip of South America to the Equator Line, from Miami to Alaska, from Portugal to Afghanistan, or from the easternmost tip of Europe to the Pacific Ocean. It's one massive continent, though if Elio and Linda's demographic estimates are correct, it's also quite populated.

* based on the book maps, the Lands of Ice and Fire maps give a slightly smaller figure.

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If the Wall is really 100 leagues long, that would make the known portion of Westeros (from the southernmost tip of Dorne to the Wall, since we don't know how big the Land of Always Winter is) about 1084 leagues* long (6022 km, 3742 miles).

That's roughly the same distance as from the tip of South America to the Equator Line, from Miami to Alaska, from Portugal to Afghanistan, or from the easternmost tip of Europe to the Pacific Ocean. It's one massive continent, though if Elio and Linda's demographic estimates are correct, it's also quite populated.

* based on the book maps, the Lands of Ice and Fire maps give a slightly smaller figure.

Disregarding it being pre-urbanization, how is it that KL has 500k populace if these numbers are correct? The seven kingdoms are absolutely massive, and from what it appears indeed pretty densely populated.
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Disregarding it being pre-urbanization, how is it that KL has 500k populace if these numbers are correct? The seven kingdoms are absolutely massive, and from what it appears indeed pretty densely populated.

No, the implication of this is that Westeros is actually pretty thinly populated by medieval terms. If the entire Westeros had medieval England's average population density, for example, it would have a population of around 120 million people. Instead, the most reasonable estimates based on the books give us a figure of around 40 million only.

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No, the implication of this is that Westeros is actually pretty thinly populated by medieval terms. If the entire Westeros had medieval England's average population density, for example, it would have a population of around 120 million people. Instead, the most reasonable estimates based on the books give us a figure of around 40 million only.

Not that thinly populated. If Ran was right about the north having the same population density as medieval Scandinavia (I think he said something like that on youtube) that would put the north on between 1 and 2 people per square kilometre, leaving plenty for the southern 2 thirds.

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Not that thinly populated. If Ran was right about the north having the same population density as medieval Scandinavia (I think he said something like that on youtube) that would put the north on between 1 and 2 people per square kilometre, leaving plenty for the southern 2 thirds.

Let's not get into that debate here. Suffice it to say that the Scandinavia comparison is way off, based on many text based references.

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Westeros is pretty big length-wise, bigger than Europe, but is much smaller in terms of area, having about 2.3 million miles². That makes for a population density of 19.5 inhabitants/mile², going with Elio's estimate of 45 million people. That's not a whole lot less than middle-age Europe (which, according to wikipedia had a peak population of about 100 million before the black plague, marking it at 25.4 inhabitants/mile²), and more than even some current-day countries like Libya or Australia. Not bad for a continent plagued by all-out conflicts.

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