Adriatic Sea is 1.02× the size of Arkansas

The Adriatic Sea (sea) covers about 141,000 km² (54,400 mi²) and Arkansas (state) about 138,000 km² (53,100 mi²). Below, both outlines are drawn at one scale and centred on each other. The Adriatic Sea outline is Natural Earth’s, checked against the published area.

141,000km²Adriatic Sea
138,000km²Arkansas

200 km

Adriatic Sea
Arkansas

What fits

Arkansas is 98% of the size of Adriatic Sea.
Adriatic Sea is larger by 3,410 km² (1,320 mi²), which is 2.5% of the area of Arkansas.
Measured in Belgiums: Adriatic Sea is about 4.60, Arkansas about 4.48.

How they differ

Their centres are about 8,750 km apart.
A standard web map misstates the comparison: Adriatic Sea at 43°N is drawn about 1.9× too large and Arkansas at 35°N about 1.5×, so the map shows Adriatic Sea as 1.28× the size of Arkansas instead of 1.02×.
Together Adriatic Sea and Arkansas cover 278,000 km², close to the size of Burkina Faso (273,000 km², 2.1% smaller).
The gap between them, 3,410 km², is about the size of Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (3,320 km²).
Adriatic Sea's centre is 7.8° of latitude, about 870 km, farther north than Arkansas's.
The Adriatic Sea is a sea and ranks 27th of the 42 seas on sizeversus by area.
Arkansas is a state of the United States; it is not drawn with its waters removed, and its measured area is the Natural Earth outline's.
Laid out flat, the Adriatic Sea stretches about 668 km north to south and 637 km east to west; Arkansas about 389 km by 444 km.
Wikidata’s published figure of 139,000 km² agrees with our measured 141,000 km², to within 2%.

Who wins on what

Measure	Winner	By
Larger area	Adriatic Sea	1.02×
Farther north	Adriatic Sea	7.8° of latitude
Stretched more on a web map	Adriatic Sea	1.9× against 1.5×

Both against the same yardsticks

Yardstick	Adriatic Sea	Arkansas
Belgium 30,700 km²	4.60×	4.48×
United Kingdom 244,000 km²	0.58×	0.56×
Germany 358,000 km²	0.39×	0.38×
Japan 374,000 km²	0.38×	0.37×
France 548,000 km²	0.26×	0.25×
India 3,151,000 km²	0.04×	0.04×
Brazil 8,473,000 km²	0.02×	0.02×
United States 9,447,000 km²	0.01×	0.01×
Russia 16,980,000 km²	0.01×	0.01×

Each figure is the place's area divided by the yardstick's.

Side by side

	Adriatic Sea	Arkansas
Is a	Seasea on sizeversus	StateUnited States
Area, measured	141,000 km²54,400 mi²	138,000 km²53,100 mi²
Area, published	139,000 km²Wikidata	138,000 km²Wikidata
Rank by area	27th of 42seas	–
Greatest depth	1,233 mWikidata	–
Latitude range	40°N to 46°N	33°N to 37°N
On the shore	7 on the shore	–

Published figures: Wikidata (CC0). A lake or a sea has no legal boundary: the measured area is that of Natural Earth’s outline, and it is shown beside the published one.

Natural Earth’s outlines of Italy, Croatia, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Greece, Montenegro and Slovenia lie within 25 km of the outline of the Adriatic Sea. That is what its geometry says, and it is not a statement about who owns the water or where any border runs in it.

Similar in size to Adriatic Sea

Similar in size to Arkansas

More comparisons

Sources and method

Outlines: Lakes and seas: Natural Earth 1:10m physical vectors (public domain), kept only where the measured area is within 10% of the published one. Countries and regions: Natural Earth, 1:10m Admin 0 and Admin 1, public domain.
Boundary: De facto, as drawn by Natural Earth. A lake or a sea has no legal boundary of its own; the outline is a cartographic one.
Area: Measured on the WGS84 ellipsoid from the full-detail outlines, shown rounded. The published figure comes from Wikidata (CC0), fetched 2026-11-11, and is shown beside the measured one.
Drawing: Each outline is projected with an equal-area projection centred on its own centroid, so areas stay true and the two can be laid over each other.
Data built: 2026-11-11

Full method