Barents Sea is 1.07× the size of Peru

The Barents Sea (sea) covers about 1,378,000 km² (532,000 mi²) and Peru (country) about 1,290,000 km² (498,000 mi²). Below, both outlines are drawn at one scale and centred on each other. The Barents Sea outline is Natural Earth’s, checked against the published area.

1,378,000km²Barents Sea
1,290,000km²Peru

500 km

Barents Sea
Peru

What fits

Peru is 94% of the size of Barents Sea.
Barents Sea is larger by 87,800 km² (33,900 mi²), which is 6.8% of the area of Peru.
Measured in Belgiums: Barents Sea is about 44.9, Peru about 42.1.

How they differ

Their centres are about 11,800 km apart.
A standard web map misstates the comparison: Barents Sea at 75°N is drawn about 14.5× too large and Peru at 9°S about 1.0×, so the map shows Barents Sea as 15.1× the size of Peru instead of 1.07×.
Together Barents Sea and Peru cover 2,668,000 km², close to the size of Kazakhstan (2,714,000 km², 1.8% bigger).
The gap between them, 87,800 km², is about the size of Jordan (88,900 km²).
Barents Sea's centre is 83.9° of latitude, about 9,330 km, farther north than Peru's.
The Barents Sea is a sea and ranks 7th of the 42 seas on sizeversus by area.
Peru ranks 20th of 212 countries by area.
Laid out flat, the Barents Sea stretches about 1,710 km north to south and 1,360 km east to west; Peru about 2,040 km by 1,390 km.
Our measured 1,378,000 km² is 3.3% below Wikidata’s published figure of 1,424,000 km². Published areas of lakes and seas move with the water level and with what is counted, so a few percent is expected.

Who wins on what

Measure	Winner	By
Larger area	Barents Sea	1.07×
Farther north	Barents Sea	83.9° of latitude
Stretched more on a web map	Barents Sea	14.5× against 1.0×

Both against the same yardsticks

Yardstick	Barents Sea	Peru
Belgium 30,700 km²	44.9×	42.1×
United Kingdom 244,000 km²	5.65×	5.29×
Germany 358,000 km²	3.85×	3.61×
Japan 374,000 km²	3.69×	3.45×
France 548,000 km²	2.51×	2.35×
India 3,151,000 km²	0.44×	0.41×
Brazil 8,473,000 km²	0.16×	0.15×
United States 9,447,000 km²	0.15×	0.14×
Russia 16,980,000 km²	0.08×	0.08×

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

Side by side

	Barents Sea	Peru
Is a	Seasea on sizeversus	CountrySouth America
Area, measured	1,378,000 km²532,000 mi²	1,290,000 km²498,000 mi²
Area, published	1,424,000 km²Wikidata	1,285,000 km²Wikidata
Rank by area	7th of 42seas	20th of 212countries
Greatest depth	600 mWikidata	–
Latitude range	67°N to 82°N	18°S to 0°S
On the shore	2 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 Russia and Norway lie within 25 km of the outline of the Barents 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 Barents Sea

Similar in size to Peru

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