Translation Help with Passive Sentence


I have the following sentence to translate.

[code]

    日本はカリフォルニア州と同じぐらいの大きさで
    ほとんどのヨーロッパの国々より大きいということはあまり知られていない
    
[/code]

I am having trouble translating the second half.

[code]

    Japan is about the same size as the state of California and
    as for it being bigger than most European countries, it is not (being) known very well.
    
[/code]

Can anyone offer any hints about what the author is trying to say?




Here are two suggestions. I think both are ok and other variations are
possible. It would be interesting to hear people's comments.

> It is not very well known that Japan is about the same size as the state of
> California and much bigger than most European countries.
>
> The fact that Japan is about the same size as the state of California and
> much bigger than almost every country in Europe is not very known.

The "fact that" aligns the sentence to "ということ”, "almost every" is close to
"ほとんど".

I am taking it that both facts are not well known.




Here are two suggestions. I think both are ok and other variations are
possible. It would be interesting to hear people's comments.

> It is not very well known that Japan is about the same size as the state of
> California and much bigger than most European countries.
>
> The fact that Japan is about the same size as the state of California and
> much bigger than almost every country in Europe is not very known.

The "fact that" aligns the sentence to "ということ”, "almost every" is close to
"ほとんど".

I am taking it that both facts are not well known.

