9-Mar-20 – While ranked third in the United States by population, Chicago is smaller than 22 other cities when ranked by land area, according to the 2010 United States Census. At 227.6 square miles, we’re smaller than Virginia Beach, Virginia. We’re just barely bigger than Tucson, Arizona.

The nationwide storage space marketplace Storage Café has created maps that should help us feel better, if not bigger.

“As we’re experts in self-storage, we couldn’t help but wonder how many cities Chicago would be able to contain if it were a huuuge storage unit,” writes Mirela Mohan. Her research found Chicago is big enough to nearly fit three other U.S. cities – Portland, Oregon (134.3 square miles), Washington, D.C. (61.0 square miles), and Boston, Massachusetts (48.3 square miles). Or Seattle, Washington (83.9 square miles), Baltimore, Maryland (80.9 square miles), and Madison, Wisconsin (76.8 square miles).

Seattle’s Space Needle, Baltimore’s Top of the World Observation Level, and Wisconsin’s State Capitol in Madison, Mohan points out, could easily fit within Chicago’s city boundary.

Or two cities, Atlanta (133.2 square miles) and Milwaukee (96.1 square miles).

“Bring these two cities together and you have the approximate size of Chicago, as the sum of their areas equals 229 square miles,” writes Mohan. “Imagine Atlanta’s History Center and Milwaukee’s Mitchell Park Domes gracing the streets of Chicago. It’s never going to happen, but the necessary space is there.”

As for countries, Mohan found you could fit within Chicago’s city limits Malta, Marshall Islands, Monaco, San Marino, and Vatican City, “with a little free space left.”

Or you could fit Liechtenstein, the sixth-smallest country in the world, and the Seychelles, an island country currently located in the Indian Ocean. Or Saint Lucia.

Mohan found fictional cities, too, that could fit in Chicago. From the HBO series Game of Thrones, Volantis, which she says is 99 square miles in size, King’s Landing and Oldtown (both 33 square miles), and Lannisport (16 square miles) combined are still no match for Chicago.