Gulf of Bothnia is 1.01× the size of Malawi

The Gulf of Bothnia (gulf) covers about 120,000 km² (46,400 mi²) and Malawi (country) about 119,000 km² (46,100 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
119,000km²Malawi

100 km

Gulf of Bothnia
Malawi

What fits

Malawi is 99% of the size of Gulf of Bothnia.
Gulf of Bothnia is larger by 778 km² (301 mi²), which is 0.7% of the area of Malawi.
Measured in Belgiums: Gulf of Bothnia is about 3.92, Malawi about 3.89.

How they differ

Their centres are about 8,500 km apart.
A standard web map misstates the comparison: Gulf of Bothnia at 62°N is drawn about 4.7× too large and Malawi at 13°S about 1.1×, so the map shows Gulf of Bothnia as 4.47× the size of Malawi instead of 1.01×.
Together Gulf of Bothnia and Malawi cover 240,000 km², close to the size of Ghana (239,000 km², 0.4% smaller).
Gulf of Bothnia's centre is 75.7° of latitude, about 8,420 km, farther north than Malawi's.
The Gulf of Bothnia is a gulf and ranks 28th of the 42 seas on sizeversus by area.
Malawi ranks 101st of 212 countries by area.
Laid out flat, the Gulf of Bothnia stretches about 694 km north to south and 409 km east to west; Malawi about 862 km by 349 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	75.7° of latitude
Stretched more on a web map	Gulf of Bothnia	4.7× against 1.1×

Both against the same yardsticks

Yardstick	Gulf of Bothnia	Malawi
Belgium 30,700 km²	3.92×	3.89×
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	Malawi
Is a	Gulfsea on sizeversus	CountryAfrica
Area, measured	120,000 km²46,400 mi²	119,000 km²46,100 mi²
Area, published	117,000 km²Wikidata	118,000 km²Wikidata
Rank by area	28th of 42seas	101st of 212countries
Greatest depth	295 mWikidata	–
Latitude range	60°N to 66°N	17°S to 9°S
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 Malawi

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