Great Lakes and United Kingdom are almost exactly the same size
The Great Lakes (lake system) covers about 245,000 km² (94,600 mi²) and the United Kingdom (country) about 244,000 km² (94,100 mi²). Their outlines are laid over each other below at one scale. The Great Lakes outline is Natural Earth’s, checked against the published area.
- 245,000km²Great Lakes
- 244,000km²United Kingdom
- Great Lakes
- United Kingdom
Great Lakes: Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, counted together. Lake Saint Clair and the connecting rivers are not counted. Lakes Michigan and Huron are joined by the Straits of Mackinac and stand at one water level, which is why some sources treat them as a single lake; here they are kept as the two lakes Natural Earth draws.
What fits
- United Kingdom is 100% of the size of Great Lakes.
- The measured areas differ by 1,200 km², less than half a percent: closer than the measurement itself is certain.
- Measured in Belgiums: Great Lakes is about 7.99, United Kingdom about 7.95.
How they differ
- Their centres are about 5,640 km apart.
- On a standard web map United Kingdom looks larger than Great Lakes: Great Lakes at 45°N is drawn about 2.0× too large and United Kingdom at 54°N about 2.9×, so the map shows United Kingdom as 1.43× the size of Great Lakes, when Great Lakes is 1.00× the size of United Kingdom.
- Together Great Lakes and United Kingdom cover 489,000 km², close to the size of Spain (499,000 km², 2.2% bigger).
- United Kingdom's centre is 8.8° of latitude, about 980 km, farther north than Great Lakes's.
- The Great Lakes is a system of lakes and ranks 2nd of the 100 lakes on sizeversus by area if counted as one.
- United Kingdom ranks 79th of 212 countries by area.
- Laid out flat, the Great Lakes stretches about 852 km north to south and 1,270 km east to west; the United Kingdom about 1,210 km by 656 km.
- Counted as one, the 5 pieces measure 245,000 km². The published figure for the whole, 244,000 km² (Wikidata, the sum of the published figures of its parts), is 0.4% below it.
Who wins on what
| Measure | Winner | By |
|---|---|---|
| Larger area | Great Lakes | 1.00× |
| Farther north | United Kingdom | 8.8° of latitude |
| Stretched more on a web map | United Kingdom | 2.9× against 2.0× |
Both against the same yardsticks
| Yardstick | Great Lakes | United Kingdom |
|---|---|---|
| Belgium 30,700 km² | 7.99× | 7.95× |
| Germany 358,000 km² | 0.68× | 0.68× |
| Japan 374,000 km² | 0.66× | 0.65× |
| France 548,000 km² | 0.45× | 0.44× |
| India 3,151,000 km² | 0.08× | 0.08× |
| Brazil 8,473,000 km² | 0.03× | 0.03× |
| United States 9,447,000 km² | 0.03× | 0.03× |
| Russia 16,980,000 km² | 0.01× | 0.01× |
Each figure is the place's area divided by the yardstick's.
Side by side
| Great Lakes | United Kingdom | |
|---|---|---|
| Is a | Lake system5 pieces counted together | CountryEurope |
| Area, measured | 245,000 km²94,600 mi² | 244,000 km²94,100 mi² |
| Area, published | 244,000 km²Wikidata | 242,000 km²Wikidata |
| Rank by area | 2nd of 100lakes | 79th of 212countries |
| Latitude range | 41°N to 49°N | 50°N to 61°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 the United States and Canada contain or lie within 4 km of the outline of the Great Lakes. 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 Lakes
Similar in size to United Kingdom
More comparisons
Send it to someone who won’t believe it
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