Gulf of Mexico is 1.04× the size of Alaska

The Gulf of Mexico (gulf) covers about 1,562,000 km² (603,000 mi²) and Alaska (state) about 1,505,000 km² (581,000 mi²). Below, both outlines are drawn at one scale and centred on each other. The Gulf of Mexico outline is Natural Earth’s, checked against the published area.

1,562,000km²Gulf of Mexico
1,505,000km²Alaska

1,000 km

Gulf of Mexico
Alaska

Gulf of Mexico: The United States government has used the name Gulf of America since 2025. Natural Earth’s file, which this site follows, still uses Gulf of Mexico.

Gulf of Mexico: Natural Earth draws the Bay of Campeche, the south-west corner of the gulf, as a separate polygon. This page adds it back; the Straits of Florida and the Yucatán Channel are not counted.

What fits

Alaska is 96% of the size of Gulf of Mexico.
Gulf of Mexico is larger by 56,700 km² (21,900 mi²), which is 3.8% of the area of Alaska.
Measured in Belgiums: Gulf of Mexico is about 50.9, Alaska about 49.1.

How they differ

Their centres are about 6,180 km apart.
On a standard web map Alaska looks larger than Gulf of Mexico: Gulf of Mexico at 25°N is drawn about 1.2× too large and Alaska at 64°N about 5.2×, so the map shows Alaska as 4.12× the size of Gulf of Mexico, when Gulf of Mexico is 1.04× the size of Alaska.
Together Gulf of Mexico and Alaska cover 3,067,000 km², close to the size of India (3,151,000 km², 2.7% bigger).
The gap between them, 56,700 km², is about the size of Togo (56,900 km²).
Alaska's centre is 39.1° of latitude, about 4,340 km, farther north than Gulf of Mexico's.
The Gulf of Mexico is a gulf and ranks 6th of the 43 seas on sizeversus by area if counted as one.
Alaska 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 Mexico stretches about 1,390 km north to south and 1,820 km east to west; Alaska about 1,930 km by 3,640 km.
Counted as one, the 2 pieces measure 1,562,000 km². The published figure for the whole, 1,550,000 km² (Wikidata, for the whole), is 0.8% below it.

Who wins on what

Measure	Winner	By
Larger area	Gulf of Mexico	1.04×
Farther north	Alaska	39.1° of latitude
Stretched more on a web map	Alaska	5.2× against 1.2×

Both against the same yardsticks

Yardstick	Gulf of Mexico	Alaska
Belgium 30,700 km²	50.9×	49.1×
United Kingdom 244,000 km²	6.41×	6.17×
Germany 358,000 km²	4.37×	4.21×
Japan 374,000 km²	4.18×	4.03×
France 548,000 km²	2.85×	2.75×
India 3,151,000 km²	0.50×	0.48×
Brazil 8,473,000 km²	0.18×	0.18×
United States 9,447,000 km²	0.17×	0.16×
Russia 16,980,000 km²	0.09×	0.09×

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

Side by side

	Gulf of Mexico	Alaska
Is a	Gulf2 pieces counted together	StateUnited States
Area, measured	1,562,000 km²603,000 mi²	1,505,000 km²581,000 mi²
Area, published	1,550,000 km²Wikidata	1,718,000 km²Wikidata
Rank by area	6th of 43seas	–
Greatest depth	4,384 mWikidata	–
Latitude range	18°N to 31°N	51°N to 71°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 the United States, Mexico and Cuba lie within 25 km of the outline of the Gulf of Mexico. 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 Mexico

Similar in size to Alaska

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