Greenland Sea and Niger are almost exactly the same size

The Greenland Sea (sea) covers about 1,183,000 km² (457,000 mi²) and Niger (country) about 1,181,000 km² (456,000 mi²). Their outlines are laid over each other below at one scale. The Greenland Sea outline is Natural Earth’s, checked against the published area.

1,183,000km²Greenland Sea
1,181,000km²Niger

500 km

Greenland Sea
Niger

What fits

Niger is 100% of the size of Greenland Sea.
The measured areas differ by 1,560 km², less than half a percent: closer than the measurement itself is certain.
Measured in Belgiums: Greenland Sea is about 38.6, Niger about 38.5.

How they differ

Their centres are about 6,500 km apart.
A standard web map misstates the comparison: Greenland Sea at 75°N is drawn about 14.5× too large and Niger at 17°N about 1.1×, so the map shows Greenland Sea as 13.2× the size of Niger instead of 1.00×.
Together Greenland Sea and Niger cover 2,364,000 km², close to the size of Democratic Republic of the Congo (2,325,000 km², 1.6% smaller).
Greenland Sea's centre is 57.3° of latitude, about 6,380 km, farther north than Niger's.
The Greenland Sea is a sea and ranks 8th of the 42 seas on sizeversus by area.
Niger ranks 25th of 212 countries by area.
Laid out flat, the Greenland Sea stretches about 1,990 km north to south and 1,380 km east to west; Niger about 1,310 km by 1,680 km.
Wikidata’s published figure of 1,205,000 km² agrees with our measured 1,183,000 km², to within 2%.

Who wins on what

Measure	Winner	By
Larger area	Greenland Sea	1.00×
Farther north	Greenland Sea	57.3° of latitude
Stretched more on a web map	Greenland Sea	14.5× against 1.1×

Both against the same yardsticks

Yardstick	Greenland Sea	Niger
Belgium 30,700 km²	38.6×	38.5×
United Kingdom 244,000 km²	4.85×	4.85×
Germany 358,000 km²	3.31×	3.30×
Japan 374,000 km²	3.17×	3.16×
France 548,000 km²	2.16×	2.16×
India 3,151,000 km²	0.38×	0.37×
Brazil 8,473,000 km²	0.14×	0.14×
United States 9,447,000 km²	0.13×	0.13×
Russia 16,980,000 km²	0.07×	0.07×

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

Side by side

	Greenland Sea	Niger
Is a	Seasea on sizeversus	CountryAfrica
Area, measured	1,183,000 km²457,000 mi²	1,181,000 km²456,000 mi²
Area, published	1,205,000 km²Wikidata	1,267,000 km²Wikidata
Rank by area	8th of 42seas	25th of 212countries
Greatest depth	5,600 mWikidata	–
Latitude range	65°N to 83°N	12°N to 24°N
On the shore	3 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 Greenland, Norway and Iceland lie within 25 km of the outline of the Greenland Sea. 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 Greenland Sea

Similar in size to Niger

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