Gulf of Carpentaria is 1.01× the size of Nevada

The Gulf of Carpentaria (gulf) covers about 290,000 km² (112,000 mi²) and Nevada (state) about 287,000 km² (111,000 mi²). Below, both outlines are drawn at one scale and centred on each other. The Gulf of Carpentaria outline is Natural Earth’s, checked against the published area.

290,000km²Gulf of Carpentaria
287,000km²Nevada

200 km

Gulf of Carpentaria
Nevada

What fits

Nevada is 99% of the size of Gulf of Carpentaria.
Gulf of Carpentaria is larger by 3,300 km² (1,270 mi²), which is 1.2% of the area of Nevada.
Measured in Belgiums: Gulf of Carpentaria is about 9.47, Nevada about 9.36.

How they differ

Their centres are about 12,300 km apart.
On a standard web map Nevada looks larger than Gulf of Carpentaria: Gulf of Carpentaria at 15°S is drawn about 1.1× too large and Nevada at 39°N about 1.7×, so the map shows Nevada as 1.55× the size of Gulf of Carpentaria, when Gulf of Carpentaria is 1.01× the size of Nevada.
Together Gulf of Carpentaria and Nevada cover 577,000 km², close to the size of Botswana (579,000 km², 0.3% bigger).
The gap between them, 3,300 km², is about the size of Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (3,320 km²).
Nevada's centre is 53.9° of latitude, about 5,990 km, farther north than Gulf of Carpentaria's.
The Gulf of Carpentaria is a gulf and ranks 21st of the 42 seas on sizeversus by area.
Nevada 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 Carpentaria stretches about 608 km north to south and 704 km east to west; Nevada about 781 km by 523 km.
Our measured 290,000 km² is 3.2% below Wikidata’s published figure of 300,000 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 Carpentaria	1.01×
Farther north	Nevada	53.9° of latitude
Stretched more on a web map	Nevada	1.7× against 1.1×

Both against the same yardsticks

Yardstick	Gulf of Carpentaria	Nevada
Belgium 30,700 km²	9.47×	9.36×
United Kingdom 244,000 km²	1.19×	1.18×
Germany 358,000 km²	0.81×	0.80×
Japan 374,000 km²	0.78×	0.77×
France 548,000 km²	0.53×	0.52×
India 3,151,000 km²	0.09×	0.09×
Brazil 8,473,000 km²	0.03×	0.03×
United States 9,447,000 km²	0.03×	0.03×
Russia 16,980,000 km²	0.02×	0.02×

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

Side by side

	Gulf of Carpentaria	Nevada
Is a	Gulfsea on sizeversus	StateUnited States
Area, measured	290,000 km²112,000 mi²	287,000 km²111,000 mi²
Area, published	300,000 km²Wikidata	286,000 km²Wikidata
Rank by area	21st of 42seas	–
Greatest depth	82 mWikidata	–
Latitude range	18°S to 12°S	35°N to 42°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 Gulf of Carpentaria. 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 Carpentaria

Similar in size to Nevada

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