Chesapeake Bay is 1.02× the size of Tianjin

The Chesapeake Bay (bay) covers about 11,700 km² (4,500 mi²) and Tianjin (municipality) about 11,500 km² (4,430 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
11,500km²Tianjin

50 km

Chesapeake Bay
Tianjin

What fits

Tianjin is 98% of the size of Chesapeake Bay.
Chesapeake Bay is larger by 181 km² (69.7 mi²), which is 1.6% of the area of Tianjin.
Measured in Belgiums: Chesapeake Bay is about 0.38, Tianjin about 0.37.

How they differ

Their centres are about 11,300 km apart.
On a standard web map Tianjin looks larger than Chesapeake Bay: Chesapeake Bay at 38°N is drawn about 1.6× too large and Tianjin at 39°N about 1.7×, so the map shows Tianjin as 1.02× the size of Chesapeake Bay, when Chesapeake Bay is 1.02× the size of Tianjin.
Together Chesapeake Bay and Tianjin cover 23,100 km², close to the size of Belize (22,300 km², 3.6% smaller).
The gap between them, 181 km², is about the size of Aruba (170 km²).
Tianjin's centre is 1.3° of latitude, about 140 km, farther north than Chesapeake Bay's.
The Chesapeake Bay is a bay and ranks 40th of the 42 seas on sizeversus by area.
Tianjin is a municipality of China; it is not drawn with its waters removed, and its measured area is the Natural Earth outline's.
Laid out flat, the Chesapeake Bay stretches about 300 km north to south and 145 km east to west; Tianjin about 189 km by 115 km.
Poured over Tianjin, the 82 km³ that Wikidata records for the Chesapeake Bay would stand 7.1 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	1.02×
Farther north	Tianjin	1.3° of latitude

Both against the same yardsticks

Yardstick	Chesapeake Bay	Tianjin
Belgium 30,700 km²	0.38×	0.37×
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 275
Brazil 8,473,000 km²	1 in 727	1 in 738
United States 9,447,000 km²	1 in 811	1 in 823
Russia 16,980,000 km²	1 in 1,457	1 in 1,480

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

Side by side

	Chesapeake Bay	Tianjin
Is a	Baysea on sizeversus	MunicipalityChina
Area, measured	11,700 km²4,500 mi²	11,500 km²4,430 mi²
Area, published	11,600 km²Wikidata	11,900 km²Wikidata
Rank by area	40th of 42seas	–
Volume	82 km³	–
Latitude range	37°N to 40°N	39°N to 40°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 Tianjin

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