Chesapeake Bay is 1.05× the size of Qatar

The Chesapeake Bay (bay) covers about 11,700 km² (4,500 mi²) and Qatar (country) about 11,200 km² (4,310 mi²). Below, both outlines are drawn at one scale and centred on each other. The Chesapeake Bay outline is Natural Earth’s, checked against the published area.

11,700km²Chesapeake Bay
11,200km²Qatar

50 km

Chesapeake Bay
Qatar

What fits

Qatar is 96% of the size of Chesapeake Bay.
Chesapeake Bay is larger by 506 km² (195 mi²), which is 4.5% of the area of Qatar.
Measured in Belgiums: Chesapeake Bay is about 0.38, Qatar about 0.36.

How they differ

Their centres are about 11,100 km apart.
A standard web map misstates the comparison: Chesapeake Bay at 38°N is drawn about 1.6× too large and Qatar at 25°N about 1.2×, so the map shows Chesapeake Bay as 1.38× the size of Qatar instead of 1.05×.
Together Chesapeake Bay and Qatar cover 22,800 km², close to the size of Belize (22,300 km², 2.2% smaller).
The gap between them, 506 km², is about the size of Singapore (511 km²).
Chesapeake Bay's centre is 12.7° of latitude, about 1,420 km, farther north than Qatar's.
The Chesapeake Bay is a bay and ranks 40th of the 42 seas on sizeversus by area.
Qatar ranks 163rd of 212 countries by area.
Laid out flat, the Chesapeake Bay stretches about 300 km north to south and 145 km east to west; Qatar about 178 km by 87 km.
Poured over Qatar, the 82 km³ that Wikidata records for the Chesapeake Bay would stand 7.3 m deep.
Wikidata’s published figure of 11,600 km² agrees with our measured 11,700 km², to within 2%.

Who wins on what

Measure	Winner	By
Larger area	Chesapeake Bay	1.05×
Farther north	Chesapeake Bay	12.7° of latitude
Stretched more on a web map	Chesapeake Bay	1.6× against 1.2×

Both against the same yardsticks

Yardstick	Chesapeake Bay	Qatar
Belgium 30,700 km²	0.38×	0.36×
United Kingdom 244,000 km²	0.05×	0.05×
Germany 358,000 km²	0.03×	0.03×
Japan 374,000 km²	0.03×	0.03×
France 548,000 km²	0.02×	0.02×
India 3,151,000 km²	1 in 270	1 in 283
Brazil 8,473,000 km²	1 in 727	1 in 760
United States 9,447,000 km²	1 in 811	1 in 847
Russia 16,980,000 km²	1 in 1,457	1 in 1,523

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

Side by side

	Chesapeake Bay	Qatar
Is a	Baysea on sizeversus	CountryAsia
Area, measured	11,700 km²4,500 mi²	11,200 km²4,310 mi²
Area, published	11,600 km²Wikidata	11,400 km²Wikidata
Rank by area	40th of 42seas	163rd of 212countries
Volume	82 km³	–
Latitude range	37°N to 40°N	25°N to 26°N
On the shore	1 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 the United States lie within 25 km of the outline of the Chesapeake Bay. 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 Chesapeake Bay

Similar in size to Qatar

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