Chongqing and Lake Superior are almost exactly the same size

Chongqing (municipality) covers about 82,400 km² (31,800 mi²) and Lake Superior (lake) about 82,300 km² (31,800 mi²). Their outlines are laid over each other below at one scale. The Lake Superior outline is Natural Earth’s, checked against the published area.

82,400km²Chongqing
82,300km²Lake Superior

100 km

Chongqing
Lake Superior

What fits

Lake Superior is 100% of the size of Chongqing.
The measured areas differ by 52.5 km², less than half a percent: closer than the measurement itself is certain.
Measured in Belgiums: Chongqing is about 2.69, Lake Superior about 2.68.

How they differ

Their centres are about 11,200 km apart.
On a standard web map Lake Superior looks larger than Chongqing: Chongqing at 30°N is drawn about 1.3× too large and Lake Superior at 48°N about 2.2×, so the map shows Lake Superior as 1.64× the size of Chongqing, when Chongqing is 1.00× the size of Lake Superior.
Together Chongqing and Lake Superior cover 165,000 km², close to the size of Somaliland (167,000 km², 1.7% bigger).
Lake Superior's centre is 17.5° of latitude, about 1,950 km, farther north than Chongqing's.
Chongqing is a municipality of China; it is not drawn with its waters removed, and its measured area is the Natural Earth outline's.
Lake Superior is a lake and ranks 2nd of the 104 lakes on sizeversus by area.
Laid out flat, Chongqing stretches about 445 km north to south and 469 km east to west; Lake Superior about 287 km by 590 km.
Poured over Chongqing, the 12,100 km³ that Wikidata records for Lake Superior would stand 147 m deep.
Wikidata’s published figure of 82,400 km² agrees with our measured 82,300 km², to within 2%.

Who wins on what

Measure	Winner	By
Larger area	Chongqing	1.00×
Farther north	Lake Superior	17.5° of latitude
Stretched more on a web map	Lake Superior	2.2× against 1.3×

Both against the same yardsticks

Yardstick	Chongqing	Lake Superior
Belgium 30,700 km²	2.69×	2.68×
United Kingdom 244,000 km²	0.34×	0.34×
Germany 358,000 km²	0.23×	0.23×
Japan 374,000 km²	0.22×	0.22×
France 548,000 km²	0.15×	0.15×
India 3,151,000 km²	0.03×	0.03×
Brazil 8,473,000 km²	0.01×	0.01×
United States 9,447,000 km²	0.01×	0.01×
Russia 16,980,000 km²	1 in 206	1 in 206

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

Side by side

	Chongqing	Lake Superior
Is a	MunicipalityChina	Lakelake on sizeversus
Area, measured	82,400 km²31,800 mi²	82,300 km²31,800 mi²
Area, published	82,400 km²Wikidata	82,400 km²Wikidata
Rank by area	–	2nd of 104lakes
Greatest depth	–	406 mWikidata
Volume	–	12,100 km³
Latitude range	28°N to 32°N	46°N to 49°N
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 Canada and the United States contain or lie within 4 km of the outline of Lake Superior. 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 Chongqing

Similar in size to Lake Superior

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