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The airports of the world in numbers

How many airports are there in the world? The open OurAirports register, in the snapshot of 2026-07-08, answers: 47,926 airports across 239 countries and territories, adding up the small, medium and large tiers and leaving out heliports, seaplane bases and closed fields. Of those, 1,174 are large and 4,096 are medium. United States leads with 95 large airports. The source carries no passenger traffic, so this page uses the large count as a declared proxy for relevance: that is what orders the country table below.

Airports by country

#	Country or territory	Large	Medium	Small	Total
1	United States	95	822	15,249	16,166
2	China	69	264	238	571
3	Russia	44	211	684	939
4	India	43	96	179	318
5	Japan	29	79	171	279
6	Mexico	29	42	1,508	1,579
7	Brazil	28	110	5,502	5,640
8	Italy	25	48	582	655
9	Germany	22	53	768	843
10	Spain	21	34	310	365
11	Indonesia	19	64	540	623
12	Kazakhstan	19	9	82	110
13	Türkiye	18	48	50	116
14	France	17	118	1,055	1,190
15	United Kingdom	17	71	966	1,054
16	Saudi Arabia	17	23	49	89
17	Australia	15	178	2,083	2,276
18	Iran	15	49	119	183
19	Philippines	15	42	186	243
20	Egypt	15	18	39	72
21	Canada	13	237	1,246	1,496
22	Argentina	13	59	730	802
23	Algeria	12	27	59	98
24	Nigeria	12	17	22	51
25	Romania	12	9	89	110
26	Morocco	12	7	17	36
27	South Africa	11	51	519	581
28	Sweden	11	35	163	209
29	Pakistan	11	28	76	115
30	Finland	11	20	67	98
31	Poland	11	16	298	325
32	Norway	10	33	104	147
33	Thailand	10	33	63	106
34	Peru	9	22	144	175
35	Greece	9	20	53	82
36	Chile	8	25	347	380
37	Malaysia	8	21	71	100
38	South Korea	8	16	74	98
39	Vietnam	8	14	14	36
40	United Arab Emirates	8	4	30	42
41	Venezuela	7	43	469	519
42	Taiwan	7	13	36	56
43	Colombia	6	54	602	662
44	Iraq	6	24	39	69
45	Cuba	6	18	95	119
46	Bolivia	6	14	182	202
47	Uzbekistan	6	6	49	61
48	Austria	6	3	55	64
49	Croatia	6	3	44	53
50	Ukraine	5	27	117	149
51	Portugal	5	26	98	129
52	Denmark	5	12	84	101
53	Czechia	5	9	251	265
54	Netherlands	5	9	27	41
55	Yemen	5	6	28	39
56	Cambodia	5	2	5	12
57	New Zealand	4	34	168	206
58	Madagascar	4	19	70	93
59	DR Congo	4	17	246	267
60	Kenya	4	14	326	344
61	Ecuador	4	13	303	320
62	Mozambique	4	12	77	93
63	Ethiopia	4	12	42	58
64	Libya	4	9	62	75
65	Tanzania	4	8	194	206
66	Zambia	4	6	113	123
67	Ireland	4	6	91	101
68	Dominican Republic	4	6	22	32
69	Bulgaria	4	5	98	107
70	Afghanistan	4	5	59	68
71	Oman	4	5	28	37
72	Botswana	4	3	120	127
73	Maldives	4	3	13	20
74	Tajikistan	4	3	13	20
75	Cape Verde	4	2	3	9
76	Bosnia and Herzegovina	4	0	16	20
77	Bahamas	3	25	26	54
78	Myanmar	3	19	52	74
79	Paraguay	3	11	70	84
80	Azerbaijan	3	11	19	33
81	Georgia	3	9	8	20
82	Belgium	3	8	38	49
83	Hungary	3	7	100	110
84	Cameroon	3	7	34	44
85	Sri Lanka	3	7	8	18
86	Zimbabwe	3	6	138	147
87	Nepal	3	6	41	50
88	Bangladesh	3	6	8	17
89	Honduras	3	5	122	130
90	Turkmenistan	3	5	15	23
91	Lithuania	3	4	55	62
92	Kyrgyzstan	3	4	13	20
93	Laos	3	3	14	20
94	Ghana	3	3	5	11
95	Somalia	3	2	35	40
96	Jordan	3	2	13	18
97	Cyprus	3	2	9	14
98	Equatorial Guinea	3	1	3	7
99	Micronesia	3	1	3	7
100	Angola	2	20	90	112
101	Papua New Guinea	2	19	551	572
102	Costa Rica	2	15	115	132
103	Namibia	2	12	280	294
104	Mongolia	2	12	23	37
105	Iceland	2	11	64	77
106	Switzerland	2	11	55	68
107	Tunisia	2	10	2	14
108	Gabon	2	9	32	43
109	Belarus	2	8	35	45
110	Sudan	2	8	34	44
111	Syria	2	8	34	44
112	Senegal	2	8	11	21
113	Israel	2	7	30	39
114	Ivory Coast	2	5	22	29
115	Congo	2	4	50	56
116	Haiti	2	4	11	17
117	Serbia	2	3	41	46
118	Mali	2	3	25	30
119	Malawi	2	3	22	27
120	Jamaica	2	3	15	20
121	Latvia	2	2	50	54
122	Mauritania	2	2	21	25
123	Kiribati	2	2	17	21
124	Western Sahara	2	2	10	14
125	Timor-Leste	2	2	7	11
126	Fiji	2	1	23	26
127	Armenia	2	1	8	11
128	Qatar	2	1	4	7
129	Tonga	2	1	3	6
130	Burkina Faso	2	0	47	49
131	North Macedonia	2	0	11	13
132	Réunion	2	0	5	7
133	Togo	2	0	5	7
134	Trinidad and Tobago	2	0	1	3
135	French Polynesia	1	25	28	54
136	North Korea	1	16	62	79
137	Greenland	1	9	15	25
138	Belize	1	8	19	28
139	New Caledonia	1	8	12	21
140	Puerto Rico	1	8	11	20
141	Panama	1	7	68	76
142	Slovakia	1	6	109	116
143	Uruguay	1	6	58	65
144	Guatemala	1	6	51	58
145	Estonia	1	5	28	34
146	Niger	1	5	20	26
147	Singapore	1	5	3	9
148	Chad	1	4	42	47
149	Uganda	1	4	35	40
150	Moldova	1	4	6	11
151	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	1	4	0	5
152	South Sudan	1	3	92	96
153	Guyana	1	3	55	59
154	Slovenia	1	3	38	42
155	Vanuatu	1	3	27	31
156	French Guiana	1	3	10	14
157	Turks and Caicos Islands	1	3	5	9
158	Sierra Leone	1	3	4	8
159	Lebanon	1	3	3	7
160	Nicaragua	1	2	36	39
161	Liberia	1	2	16	19
162	Rwanda	1	2	5	8
163	Kuwait	1	2	4	7
164	Mauritius	1	2	2	5
165	Northern Mariana Islands	1	2	1	4
166	Albania	1	2	0	3
167	Caribbean Netherlands	1	2	0	3
168	Cayman Islands	1	2	0	3
169	Comoros	1	2	0	3
170	Central African Republic	1	1	41	43
171	Solomon Islands	1	1	34	36
172	Marshall Islands	1	1	31	33
173	El Salvador	1	1	25	27
174	Seychelles	1	1	15	17
175	Eswatini	1	1	14	16
176	Burundi	1	1	4	6
177	Guadeloupe	1	1	4	6
178	Montenegro	1	1	3	5
179	Bhutan	1	1	2	4
180	Antigua and Barbuda	1	1	1	3
181	Bahrain	1	1	1	3
182	British Virgin Islands	1	1	1	3
183	Guam	1	1	1	3
184	Hong Kong	1	1	0	2
185	Saint Kitts and Nevis	1	1	0	2
186	Saint Lucia	1	1	0	2
187	São Tomé and Príncipe	1	1	0	2
188	United States Virgin Islands	1	1	0	2
189	Suriname	1	0	55	56
190	Falkland Islands	1	0	33	34
191	Lesotho	1	0	33	34
192	Guinea	1	0	16	17
193	Benin	1	0	9	10
194	Cook Islands	1	0	9	10
195	Djibouti	1	0	9	10
196	Guinea-Bissau	1	0	9	10
197	Isle of Man	1	0	3	4
198	Samoa	1	0	3	4
199	American Samoa	1	0	2	3
200	Luxembourg	1	0	2	3
201	Palau	1	0	2	3
202	Brunei	1	0	1	2
203	Grenada	1	0	1	2
204	Kosovo	1	0	1	2
205	Wallis and Futuna	1	0	1	2
206	Aruba	1	0	0	1
207	Barbados	1	0	0	1
208	Bermuda	1	0	0	1
209	Cocos (Keeling) Islands	1	0	0	1
210	Curaçao	1	0	0	1
211	Faroe Islands	1	0	0	1
212	Gambia	1	0	0	1
213	Gibraltar	1	0	0	1
214	Macau	1	0	0	1
215	Malta	1	0	0	1
216	Martinique	1	0	0	1
217	Mayotte	1	0	0	1
218	Montserrat	1	0	0	1
219	Sint Maarten	1	0	0	1
220	Antarctica	0	6	26	32
221	Eritrea	0	3	16	19
222	United States Minor Outlying Islands	0	2	1	3
223	Dominica	0	2	0	2
224	Guernsey	0	2	0	2
225	Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha	0	2	0	2
226	Saint Pierre and Miquelon	0	1	1	2
227	Anguilla	0	1	0	1
228	British Indian Ocean Territory	0	1	0	1
229	Christmas Island	0	1	0	1
230	Jersey	0	1	0	1
231	Nauru	0	1	0	1
232	Niue	0	1	0	1
233	Norfolk Island	0	1	0	1
234	Saint Barthélemy	0	1	0	1
235	Saint Martin	0	1	0	1
236	Tuvalu	0	1	0	1
237	French Southern and Antarctic Lands	0	0	4	4
238	XP	0	0	2	2
239	San Marino	0	0	1	1

Computed extremes

Extremes computed straight from the register's coordinates and elevations: the highest large airport in the world sits at 4,071 m (13,355 ft) and the lowest operates at -22 m (-72 ft), below sea level. Elevation comes in feet in the CSV; the conversion to meters is ours.

Record (among large)	Airport	Country	Value
Highest	El Alto International Airport	Bolivia	4,071 m (13,355 ft)
Lowest	Atyrau International Airport	Kazakhstan	-22 m (-72 ft)
Northernmost	Tromsø Airport	Norway	69.68 N
Southernmost	President Carlos Ibáñez International Airport	Chile	53.00 S

The closest pair of large airports on the planet is Doha International Airport and Hamad International Airport, 4.5 km apart in a straight line, both listed under Qatar.

GIG, GRU, EZE: when the code does not match the city

Of the 1,172 large airports with an IATA code in the register, only 175 (15%) carry a code equal to the first three letters of the municipality they serve. The rest holds history: the code usually comes from the airport's own name, a neighborhood or an older name of the field, and it does not change when the airport is renamed. The cases below are the classics.

Code	Airport	Where it comes from
GIG	Rio Galeão - Tom Jobim International Airport	From Galeao, the historic name of the airport on Ilha do Governador, in Rio de Janeiro; the Tom Jobim naming came after the code.
GRU	São Paulo/Guarulhos-Governor André Franco Montoro International Airport	From Guarulhos, the municipality in Greater Sao Paulo where the airport was built.
EZE	Ezeiza International Airport - Ministro Pistarini	From Ezeiza, the district of Greater Buenos Aires where the airport sits.
CDG	Charles de Gaulle International Airport	The initials of Charles de Gaulle, after whom the Paris airport is named.
JFK	John F. Kennedy International Airport	The initials of John F. Kennedy, after whom the New York airport is named.
ORD	Chicago O'Hare International Airport	From Orchard Field, the name of the Chicago field before it became O'Hare; the code was never updated.
YYZ	Toronto Pearson International Airport	In Canada nearly every code starts with Y; the YZ pair identified the Malton station, where the Toronto airport was born.

Source and what cannot be computed

Source: OurAirports, public domain, snapshot of 2026-07-08. The counts follow the register's own size classification (small, medium, large) and exclude heliports, seaplane bases, balloonports and closed fields. Elevations come in feet in the source and are converted to meters by this site; distances use the haversine formula, always in straight lines. What this page does not compute, because the source does not have it: passenger traffic, runway counts and runways per capita by country. None of that appears here, not even in disguise. Countries with 3 or more large and medium fields get their own page, linked in the table, with the full airport list and the extremes of each territory. United States, the leader, totals 917 large and medium fields.

Last updated: 2026-07-13 · Methodology and sources