The atomic radius of sodium is 186 pm. Potassium, below it in group 1, is 231 pm.

Atomic radius falls across a period, because the nuclear charge grows while new electrons enter the same shell. It grows down a group, because each period adds a shell. A cation is smaller than its atom, an anion larger. In isoelectronic species, more protons mean a smaller particle. The covalent radius is half the distance between two bonded nuclei, and the metallic radius half the distance between neighbouring nuclei in a metal.