Fujian and Gulf of Bothnia are almost exactly the same size

Fujian (province) covers about 121,000 km² (46,600 mi²) and the Gulf of Bothnia (gulf) about 120,000 km² (46,400 mi²). Their outlines are laid over each other below at one scale. The Gulf of Bothnia outline is Natural Earth’s, checked against the published area.

121,000km²Fujian
120,000km²Gulf of Bothnia

100 km

Fujian
Gulf of Bothnia

What fits

Gulf of Bothnia is 100% of the size of Fujian.
The measured areas differ by 548 km², less than half a percent: closer than the measurement itself is certain.
Measured in Belgiums: Fujian is about 3.94, Gulf of Bothnia about 3.92.

How they differ

Their centres are about 7,820 km apart.
On a standard web map Gulf of Bothnia looks larger than Fujian: Fujian at 26°N is drawn about 1.2× too large and Gulf of Bothnia at 62°N about 4.7×, so the map shows Gulf of Bothnia as 3.77× the size of Fujian, when Fujian is 1.00× the size of Gulf of Bothnia.
Together Fujian and Gulf of Bothnia cover 241,000 km², close to the size of Uganda (242,000 km², 0.4% bigger).
Gulf of Bothnia's centre is 36.4° of latitude, about 4,050 km, farther north than Fujian's.
Fujian is a province of China; it is not drawn with its waters removed, and its measured area is the Natural Earth outline's.
The Gulf of Bothnia is a gulf and ranks 28th of the 42 seas on sizeversus by area.
Laid out flat, Fujian stretches about 528 km north to south and 457 km east to west; the Gulf of Bothnia about 694 km by 409 km.
Our measured 120,000 km² is 2.7% above Wikidata’s published figure of 117,000 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	Fujian	1.00×
Farther north	Gulf of Bothnia	36.4° of latitude
Stretched more on a web map	Gulf of Bothnia	4.7× against 1.2×

Both against the same yardsticks

Yardstick	Fujian	Gulf of Bothnia
Belgium 30,700 km²	3.94×	3.92×
United Kingdom 244,000 km²	0.50×	0.49×
Germany 358,000 km²	0.34×	0.34×
Japan 374,000 km²	0.32×	0.32×
France 548,000 km²	0.22×	0.22×
India 3,151,000 km²	0.04×	0.04×
Brazil 8,473,000 km²	0.01×	0.01×
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

	Fujian	Gulf of Bothnia
Is a	ProvinceChina	Gulfsea on sizeversus
Area, measured	121,000 km²46,600 mi²	120,000 km²46,400 mi²
Area, published	121,000 km²Wikidata	117,000 km²Wikidata
Rank by area	–	28th of 42seas
Greatest depth	–	295 mWikidata
Latitude range	24°N to 28°N	60°N to 66°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 Sweden and Finland lie within 25 km of the outline of the Gulf of Bothnia. 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 Fujian

Similar in size to Gulf of Bothnia

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