Texas. Everything’s bigger in Texas, right? It’s a common saying, and for good reason. The Lone Star State is undeniably vast, stretching across seemingly endless miles. But just how vast is it? Trying to wrap your head around its size can be tricky. Listing distances between Texan cities, while impressive, often feels abstract unless you’ve personally driven those routes. And when we start comparing it to entire continents or political unions, things get even more confusing. So, let’s tackle a compelling geographical question: How Big Is The Eu Compared To Texas? You might be surprised by the answer, and visualizing this comparison can be truly eye-opening.
One of the best ways to understand the sheer scale of Texas is by using a clever web tool called MAPfrappe. This nifty application lets you outline Texas and then overlay its shape onto any other location in the world using Google Maps. It’s not just a simple cut-and-paste job from a world atlas, though. MAPfrappe cleverly adjusts for map distortions that occur at different longitudes. This means when you move Texas around on the map, its shape subtly changes to accurately reflect how it would appear at that new location.
For instance, if you were to just take the shape of Texas as it is and place it over Alaska, it would look deceptively small due to Alaska’s high latitude on standard maps. However, MAPfrappe corrects for this distortion, giving you a more accurate sense of how these two giants of landmass truly compare. Texas is still smaller than Alaska, but the visual adjustment shows it’s not as dwarfed as you might initially think.
Let’s keep this visual comparison going, particularly as it relates to our question about the European Union. When you look at Texas superimposed over Europe, a fascinating picture emerges.
Europe, as a continent, is known for its diverse tapestry of countries packed relatively close together. France, for example, is often cited as being roughly comparable in size to Texas. But here’s where the comparison gets interesting when we consider the European Union, a political and economic union of 27 member states located primarily in Europe.
Imagine taking the outline of Texas and placing it over the heart of Europe. You’ll find that Texas is large enough to blanket a significant portion of Western and Central Europe. You could comfortably fit countries like Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria, Switzerland, and Hungary within the borders of Texas. Think about that for a moment: major European nations, each with their own rich history, culture, and economy, all nestled within the area of a single US state.
In fact, while the entire European Union, with all its 27 member countries combined, is larger than Texas, the difference isn’t as massive as you might expect. The total land area of the European Union is approximately 4.2 million square kilometers (about 1.6 million square miles). Texas, on the other hand, covers roughly 695,662 square kilometers (around 268,988 square miles).
This means the EU is about 6 times larger than Texas in land area. While significant, it’s not an astronomical difference when you consider that the EU is comprised of nearly thirty individual countries. You could fit Texas comfortably within the EU multiple times over, but visualizing Texas draped over a map of Europe really underscores just how substantial Texas truly is on a global scale.
To further emphasize this point, consider the distances within Texas itself. Driving from El Paso in West Texas to Beaumont in East Texas is about 824 miles. That’s roughly the same distance as driving from Dallas, Texas, to Sioux Falls, South Dakota. These are distances that could easily span multiple countries within Europe. This internal vastness of Texas is key to understanding its size in relation to a continent known for its relatively compact countries.
Moving beyond Europe, comparing Texas to other parts of the world further reinforces its impressive dimensions. Africa, a continent often underestimated in size on world maps, is truly enormous. Even smaller African nations like Mauritania are comparable to Texas in size. Larger countries like Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo dwarf Texas considerably. This perspective was particularly relevant during events like the Ebola outbreak in West Africa in 2014. The distance between affected West African nations and other parts of Africa was comparable to the size of Texas, highlighting the continental scale of the issue.
In other regions, like the Middle East and Southeast Asia, Texas serves as a useful benchmark for understanding geographical scale. Saudi Arabia is notably larger than Texas, while Iran is roughly the same size. In Southeast Asia, Vietnam can be visualized as stretching across a significant portion of Texas, from Corpus Christi to Texarkana, but encompassing the entire country would require even more space.
Ultimately, using Texas as a unit of measurement provides a relatable and effective way to grasp the size of different regions around the world. While the European Union is considerably larger, visualizing Texas overlaid on Europe reveals that the Lone Star State is far from small. It’s a landmass capable of encompassing numerous European countries, offering a surprising perspective on geographical comparisons. So, the next time you hear “Everything’s bigger in Texas,” remember to consider just how much “bigger” really means, especially when placed on a global map.
