Gulf of Riga is 1.12× the size of Beijing

The Gulf of Riga (gulf) covers about 18,200 km² (7,030 mi²) and Beijing (municipality) about 16,300 km² (6,270 mi²). Below, both outlines are drawn at one scale and centred on each other. The Gulf of Riga outline is Natural Earth’s, checked against the published area.

18,200km²Gulf of Riga
16,300km²Beijing

50 km

Gulf of Riga
Beijing

What fits

Beijing is 89% of the size of Gulf of Riga.
Gulf of Riga is larger by 1,950 km² (751 mi²), which is 12% of the area of Beijing.
Measured in Belgiums: Gulf of Riga is about 0.59, Beijing about 0.53.

How they differ

Their centres are about 6,490 km apart.
A standard web map misstates the comparison: Gulf of Riga at 58°N is drawn about 3.5× too large and Beijing at 40°N about 1.7×, so the map shows Gulf of Riga as 2.32× the size of Beijing instead of 1.12×.
Together Gulf of Riga and Beijing cover 34,400 km², close to the size of Moldova (33,200 km², 3.6% smaller).
The gap between them, 1,950 km², is about the size of Mauritius (2,000 km²).
Gulf of Riga's centre is 17.7° of latitude, about 1,970 km, farther north than Beijing's.
The Gulf of Riga is a gulf and ranks 37th of the 42 seas on sizeversus by area.
Beijing is a municipality of China; it is not drawn with its waters removed, and its measured area is the Natural Earth outline's.
Laid out flat, the Gulf of Riga stretches about 228 km north to south and 166 km east to west; Beijing about 178 km by 175 km.
Wikidata’s published figure of 18,000 km² agrees with our measured 18,200 km², to within 2%.

Who wins on what

Measure	Winner	By
Larger area	Gulf of Riga	1.12×
Farther north	Gulf of Riga	17.7° of latitude
Stretched more on a web map	Gulf of Riga	3.5× against 1.7×

Both against the same yardsticks

Yardstick	Gulf of Riga	Beijing
Belgium 30,700 km²	0.59×	0.53×
United Kingdom 244,000 km²	0.07×	0.07×
Germany 358,000 km²	0.05×	0.05×
Japan 374,000 km²	0.05×	0.04×
France 548,000 km²	0.03×	0.03×
India 3,151,000 km²	0.01×	0.01×
Brazil 8,473,000 km²	1 in 466	1 in 521
United States 9,447,000 km²	1 in 519	1 in 581
Russia 16,980,000 km²	1 in 933	1 in 1,045

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

Side by side

	Gulf of Riga	Beijing
Is a	Gulfsea on sizeversus	MunicipalityChina
Area, measured	18,200 km²7,030 mi²	16,300 km²6,270 mi²
Area, published	18,000 km²Wikidata	16,400 km²Wikidata
Rank by area	37th of 42seas	–
Greatest depth	67 mWikidata	–
Latitude range	57°N to 59°N	39°N to 41°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 Estonia and Latvia lie within 25 km of the outline of the Gulf of Riga. 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 Riga

Similar in size to Beijing

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