Great Barrier Reef is 1.01× the size of Republic of the Congo

The Great Barrier Reef (reef) covers about 348,000 km² (135,000 mi²) and the Republic of the Congo (country) about 345,000 km² (133,000 mi²). Below, both outlines are drawn at one scale and centred on each other. The Great Barrier Reef outline is Natural Earth’s, checked against the published area.

348,000km²Great Barrier Reef
345,000km²Republic of the Congo

200 km

Great Barrier Reef
Republic of the Congo

What fits

Republic of the Congo is 99% of the size of Great Barrier Reef.
Great Barrier Reef is larger by 3,470 km² (1,340 mi²), which is 1.0% of the area of Republic of the Congo.
Measured in Belgiums: Great Barrier Reef is about 11.4, Republic of the Congo about 11.2.

How they differ

Their centres are about 14,500 km apart.
Together Great Barrier Reef and Republic of the Congo cover 693,000 km², close to the size of Myanmar (663,000 km², 4.3% smaller).
The gap between them, 3,470 km², is about the size of Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (3,320 km²).
Republic of the Congo's centre is 17.3° of latitude, about 1,930 km, farther north than Great Barrier Reef's.
The Great Barrier Reef is a reef and ranks 17th of the 42 seas on sizeversus by area.
Republic of the Congo ranks 65th of 212 countries by area.
Laid out flat, the Great Barrier Reef stretches about 1,580 km north to south and 1,130 km east to west; the Republic of the Congo about 971 km by 836 km.
Wikidata’s published figure of 348,000 km² agrees with our measured 348,000 km², to within 2%.

Who wins on what

Measure	Winner	By
Larger area	Great Barrier Reef	1.01×
Farther north	Republic of the Congo	17.3° of latitude
Stretched more on a web map	Great Barrier Reef	1.1× against 1.0×

Both against the same yardsticks

Yardstick	Great Barrier Reef	Republic of the Congo
Belgium 30,700 km²	11.4×	11.2×
United Kingdom 244,000 km²	1.43×	1.41×
Germany 358,000 km²	0.97×	0.96×
Japan 374,000 km²	0.93×	0.92×
France 548,000 km²	0.64×	0.63×
India 3,151,000 km²	0.11×	0.11×
Brazil 8,473,000 km²	0.04×	0.04×
United States 9,447,000 km²	0.04×	0.04×
Russia 16,980,000 km²	0.02×	0.02×

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

Side by side

	Great Barrier Reef	Republic of the Congo
Is a	Reefsea on sizeversus	CountryAfrica
Area, measured	348,000 km²135,000 mi²	345,000 km²133,000 mi²
Area, published	348,000 km²Wikidata	342,000 km²Wikidata
Rank by area	17th of 42seas	65th of 212countries
Latitude range	24°S to 10°S	5°S to 4°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 Australia lie within 25 km of the outline of the Great Barrier Reef. 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 Great Barrier Reef

Similar in size to Republic of the Congo

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