Luxembourg is not a microstate

Luxembourg always ends up in lists with Monaco and Vatican City as a European microstate. But many argue it doesn’t belong in this category.

At 2,586 km² (998 mi²), Luxembourg has real territory – farmland, forests, proper cities. It sits between three major countries and has substance to it. The so-called microstates? Completely different scale:

Country	Area (km²)	Area (mi²)
Luxembourg	2,586 km²	998 mi²
Andorra	468 km²	181 mi²
Malta	316 km²	122 mi²
Liechtenstein	160 km²	62 mi²
San Marino	61 km²	24 mi²
Monaco	2.1 km²	0.8 mi²
Vatican City	0.49 km²	0.19 mi²

Monaco could fit inside Luxembourg 1,230 times. Even Andorra, the biggest of the actual microstates, is five times smaller.

Then there’s the economy. Luxembourg’s GDP per capita was around €56,300 in 2024. That’s 1.42 times the EU average of €39,680. Major banks operate there. Around 200,000 people cross the border daily just to work in Luxembourg.

Yes, you can drive across Luxembourg in under an hour. But you can walk across Vatican City in minutes and Monaco barely takes longer. Luxembourg works like a normal European country – it just happens to be geographically compact while being economically massive.