Gulf of Riga is 1.08× the size of Hawaii

The Gulf of Riga (gulf) covers about 18,200 km² (7,030 mi²) and Hawaii (state) about 16,800 km² (6,510 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
16,800km²Hawaii

100 km

Gulf of Riga
Hawaii

What fits

Hawaii is 93% of the size of Gulf of Riga.
Gulf of Riga is larger by 1,350 km² (521 mi²), which is 8.0% of the area of Hawaii.
Measured in Belgiums: Gulf of Riga is about 0.59, Hawaii about 0.55.

How they differ

Their centres are about 11,300 km apart.
A standard web map misstates the comparison: Gulf of Riga at 58°N is drawn about 3.5× too large and Hawaii at 20°N about 1.1×, so the map shows Gulf of Riga as 3.37× the size of Hawaii instead of 1.08×.
Together Gulf of Riga and Hawaii cover 35,000 km², close to the size of Taiwan (36,200 km², 3.3% bigger).
The gap between them, 1,350 km², is about the size of Comoros (1,670 km²).
Gulf of Riga's centre is 37.6° of latitude, about 4,190 km, farther north than Hawaii's.
The Gulf of Riga is a gulf and ranks 37th of the 42 seas on sizeversus by area.
Hawaii 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 Riga stretches about 228 km north to south and 166 km east to west; Hawaii about 373 km by 563 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	1.08×
Farther north	Gulf of Riga	37.6° of latitude
Stretched more on a web map	Gulf of Riga	3.5× against 1.1×

Both against the same yardsticks

Yardstick	Gulf of Riga	Hawaii
Belgium 30,700 km²	0.59×	0.55×
United Kingdom 244,000 km²	0.07×	0.07×
Germany 358,000 km²	0.05×	0.05×
Japan 374,000 km²	0.05×	0.05×
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 503
United States 9,447,000 km²	1 in 519	1 in 561
Russia 16,980,000 km²	1 in 933	1 in 1,008

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

Side by side

	Gulf of Riga	Hawaii
Is a	Gulfsea on sizeversus	StateUnited States
Area, measured	18,200 km²7,030 mi²	16,800 km²6,510 mi²
Area, published	18,000 km²Wikidata	28,300 km²Wikidata
Rank by area	37th of 42seas	–
Greatest depth	67 mWikidata	–
Latitude range	57°N to 59°N	19°N to 28°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 Hawaii

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