A country's flatness is usually measured by its highest point — and by that measure the extremes are startling. The Maldives has a summit of about 2.4 metres. Not a hill of 2.4 metres among mountains: that is the highest ground in the entire nation. This page ranks the sovereign states whose highest point stays below 350 metres, with the elevation of each country's capital measured for comparison.
What is my elevation? Check live →Every country with a high point below 350 metres
| # | Country | Highest point (m) | Highest point (ft) | Named summit | Capital elevation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Maldives | 2.4 m | 8 ft | Villingili, Addu Atoll also cited: 5 m in surveys of the built-up high point | Male: 8 m |
| 2 | Tuvalu | 4.6 m | 15 ft | unnamed point on Niulakita | Funafuti: 3 m |
| 3 | Marshall Islands | 10 m | 33 ft | unnamed point on Likiep | Majuro: 4 m |
| 4 | Gambia | 51 m | 167 ft | Sare Firasu Hill | Banjul: 3 m |
| 5 | Bahamas | 63 m | 207 ft | Mount Alvernia, Cat Island | Nassau: 3 m |
| 6 | Nauru | 71 m | 233 ft | Command Ridge also cited: 65 m in several sources | Yaren: 11 m |
| 7 | Vatican City | 75 m | 246 ft | Vatican Hill area | Vatican City: 50 m |
| 8 | Kiribati | 81 m | 266 ft | unnamed point on Banaba | Tarawa: 3 m |
| 9 | Qatar | 103 m | 338 ft | Qurayn Abu al Bawl | Doha: 8 m |
| 10 | Bahrain | 134 m | 440 ft | Jabal ad Dukhan | Manama: 5 m |
| 11 | Monaco | 162 m | 531 ft | Chemin des Revoires, Mont Agel | Monaco: 74 m |
| 12 | Singapore | 164 m | 538 ft | Bukit Timah Hill | Singapore: 44 m |
| 13 | Denmark | 171 m | 561 ft | Mollehoj | Copenhagen: 12 m |
| 14 | Palau | 242 m | 794 ft | Mount Ngerchelchuus | Ngerulmud: 68 m |
| 15 | Malta | 253 m | 830 ft | Ta' Dmejrek | Valletta: 48 m |
| 16 | Guinea-Bissau | 266 m | 873 ft | Dongol Ronde | Bissau: 34 m |
| 17 | Kuwait | 291 m | 955 ft | unnamed point in westernmost Kuwait also cited: 142 m is often quoted, but that is Mutla Ridge, not the country's high point | Kuwait City: 9 m |
| 18 | Lithuania | 294 m | 965 ft | Aukstojas Hill | Vilnius: 168 m |
| 19 | Latvia | 312 m | 1,024 ft | Gaizinkalns | Riga: 8 m |
| 20 | Estonia | 318 m | 1,043 ft | Suur Munamagi | Tallinn: 23 m |
| 21 | Netherlands | 322 m | 1,056 ft | Vaalserberg (European Netherlands) also cited: 870 m at Mount Scenery on Saba, in the Caribbean part of the Kingdom | Amsterdam: 2 m |
| 22 | Barbados | 340 m | 1,115 ft | Mount Hillaby | Bridgetown: 32 m |
| 23 | Belarus | 345 m | 1,132 ft | Dzyarzhynskaya Hara | Minsk: 218 m |
Highest-point figures are established national geographic data; where reputable sources disagree, both values are shown. The final column is a measurement from the Copernicus digital elevation model at the city centre.
How this list is built
Most “flattest countries” lists never say where they stop, which makes them impossible to check. This one uses a stated cut-off: every sovereign state whose highest point falls below 350 metres. That threshold is arbitrary in itself, but it is explicit — you can see immediately what qualifies and what does not.
Two consequences worth naming. First, several countries most people think of as flat sit just above the line and are therefore absent: Moldova (430 m), Uruguay (514 m) and Hungary (1,014 m) among them. Second, Bangladesh does not qualify either, despite being one of the flattest places on Earth where it matters — its hills in the southeast reach about 1,052 m at Saka Haphong, even though the overwhelming majority of the country is delta below 10 m. That is the weakness of ranking by highest point, and it is worth knowing before trusting any list of this kind, including this one.
The Maldives: an entire nation below 3 metres
The Maldives consists of around 1,200 coral islands, and its highest natural point — on Villingili in Addu Atoll — reaches roughly 2.4 m. Some sources put the high point nearer 5 m, measuring ground that has been built up rather than the natural surface. Either way, about 80 percent of the country's land area sits less than one metre above sea level, which makes it the nation most exposed on Earth to rising seas. Its government has made the point in unusually direct ways, including holding a cabinet meeting underwater.
Four ways a country ends up flat
The entries in this table are not a random assortment. They fall into four groups, each flat for a different reason:
- Coral atolls — Maldives, Tuvalu, Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Nauru. Reef organisms cannot grow above the tide line, so the land can never be high. These are the only countries where flatness is an existential question rather than a geographic curiosity.
- Glaciated plains — Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, the Netherlands. Ice sheets scraped these landscapes level, removing everything soft and leaving low moraine ridges as the highest ground. Estonia's Suur Munamägi and Denmark's Møllehøj are both moraine hills, not mountains.
- Arid low platforms — Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait. The Gulf states sit on flat sedimentary shelves where the highest features are limestone rises of a hundred metres or so, often visible for great distances precisely because nothing else interrupts the horizon.
- Small islands and microstates — Malta, Barbados, Palau, Monaco, Singapore, the Bahamas, the Vatican. Here the ceiling is simply a function of size: a small landmass rarely contains high terrain, and in Monaco's and the Vatican's case the entire state is smaller than many city parks.
Why sources disagree on these numbers
Rankings of this kind rarely match each other. The reasons are worth knowing:
- Natural versus built ground. On atolls the difference matters enormously — a reclaimed embankment can be several metres higher than anything nature put there. That is the source of the 2.4 m versus 5 m disagreement over the Maldives.
- Which territory counts. The Netherlands is the clearest case. Within Europe its highest point is the Vaalserberg at 322 m, but the Kingdom of the Netherlands includes Caribbean islands, and Mount Scenery on Saba rises to roughly 870 m. Both figures are correct; they answer different questions.
- The wrong landmark. Kuwait's high point is frequently given as Mutla Ridge at 142 m. Mutla Ridge is real and well known, but the country's actual highest ground is an unnamed point of about 291 m in the far west.
- Unnamed high points. On several atoll nations the highest ground has no name at all, only a location — which makes it easy for lists to copy each other's approximations.
What flatness means for flood risk
- No high ground to retreat to. In a mountainous country a flood displaces people upward; in an atoll nation there is no upward.
- Storm surge travels far inland. On flat terrain a surge of a few metres can push kilometres inland, which is why cyclones in the Bay of Bengal have caused such extreme loss of life in Bangladesh.
- Saltwater intrusion. Long before land disappears, rising seas contaminate the fresh groundwater that low islands depend on — often the first practical limit on habitability.
Frequently asked questions
What is the flattest country in the world?
The Maldives. Its highest natural point reaches only about 2.4 m, on Villingili in Addu Atoll, and roughly 80 percent of its land lies less than one metre above sea level. Some sources cite about 5 m, measuring built-up rather than natural ground.
Which country in Europe is the flattest?
Denmark, whose highest point Mollehoj reaches about 171 m. The Netherlands is often assumed to be flatter, and its populated west genuinely is — but the Vaalserberg reaches 322 m in the far southeast, and the Kingdom's overall high point is Mount Scenery on Saba at roughly 870 m.
Why is Bangladesh not on this list?
Because this ranking uses the highest point, and Bangladesh reaches about 1,052 m at Saka Haphong in the southeastern hills. By almost any other measure it belongs among the flattest countries on Earth: most of its territory is Ganges-Brahmaputra delta lying below 10 m. It is a good illustration of what ranking by high point alone misses.
Are flat countries sinking?
Most are not sinking; the sea is rising around them, and in some delta regions the land is also subsiding as groundwater is extracted. The practical effect is the same. For atoll nations, contamination of fresh groundwater by saltwater usually becomes a problem well before land is actually lost.