Gulf of Bothnia is 1.01× the size of Louisiana

The Gulf of Bothnia (gulf) covers about 120,000 km² (46,400 mi²) and Louisiana (state) about 120,000 km² (46,200 mi²). Below, both outlines are drawn at one scale and centred on each other. The Gulf of Bothnia outline is Natural Earth’s, checked against the published area.

120,000km²Gulf of Bothnia
120,000km²Louisiana

100 km

Gulf of Bothnia
Louisiana

What fits

Louisiana is 99% of the size of Gulf of Bothnia.
Gulf of Bothnia is larger by 628 km² (242 mi²), which is 0.5% of the area of Louisiana.
Measured in Belgiums: Gulf of Bothnia is about 3.92, Louisiana about 3.90.

How they differ

Their centres are about 8,030 km apart.
A standard web map misstates the comparison: Gulf of Bothnia at 62°N is drawn about 4.7× too large and Louisiana at 31°N about 1.4×, so the map shows Gulf of Bothnia as 3.46× the size of Louisiana instead of 1.01×.
Together Gulf of Bothnia and Louisiana cover 240,000 km², close to the size of Ghana (239,000 km², 0.4% smaller).
Gulf of Bothnia's centre is 31.4° of latitude, about 3,490 km, farther north than Louisiana's.
The Gulf of Bothnia is a gulf and ranks 28th of the 42 seas on sizeversus by area.
Louisiana is a state of the United States; it is not drawn with its waters removed, and its measured area is the Natural Earth outline's.
Laid out flat, the Gulf of Bothnia stretches about 694 km north to south and 409 km east to west; Louisiana about 453 km by 483 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	Gulf of Bothnia	1.01×
Farther north	Gulf of Bothnia	31.4° of latitude
Stretched more on a web map	Gulf of Bothnia	4.7× against 1.4×

Both against the same yardsticks

Yardstick	Gulf of Bothnia	Louisiana
Belgium 30,700 km²	3.92×	3.90×
United Kingdom 244,000 km²	0.49×	0.49×
Germany 358,000 km²	0.34×	0.33×
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

	Gulf of Bothnia	Louisiana
Is a	Gulfsea on sizeversus	StateUnited States
Area, measured	120,000 km²46,400 mi²	120,000 km²46,200 mi²
Area, published	117,000 km²Wikidata	135,000 km²Wikidata
Rank by area	28th of 42seas	–
Greatest depth	295 mWikidata	–
Latitude range	60°N to 66°N	29°N to 33°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 Gulf of Bothnia

Similar in size to Louisiana

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