Lake Erie is 1.01× the size of Maryland
Lake Erie (lake) covers about 25,700 km² (9,940 mi²) and Maryland (state) about 25,500 km² (9,830 mi²). Below, both outlines are drawn at one scale and centred on each other. The Lake Erie outline is Natural Earth’s, checked against the published area.
- 25,700km²Lake Erie
- 25,500km²Maryland
100 km
- Lake Erie
- Maryland
What fits
- Maryland is 99% of the size of Lake Erie.
- Lake Erie is larger by 274 km² (106 mi²), which is 1.1% of the area of Maryland.
- Measured in Belgiums: Lake Erie is about 0.84, Maryland about 0.83.
How they differ
- Their centres are about 511 km apart.
- Together Lake Erie and Maryland cover 51,200 km², close to the size of Costa Rica (51,200 km², 0.1% smaller).
- The gap between them, 274 km², is about the size of Saint Kitts and Nevis (264 km²).
- Lake Erie's centre is 3.1° of latitude, about 350 km, farther north than Maryland's.
- Lake Erie is a lake and ranks 11th of the 104 lakes on sizeversus by area.
- Maryland 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, Lake Erie stretches about 192 km north to south and 378 km east to west; Maryland about 202 km by 384 km.
- Poured over Maryland, the 483 km³ that Wikidata records for Lake Erie would stand 19 m deep.
- Wikidata’s published figure of 25,700 km² agrees with our measured 25,700 km², to within 2%.
Who wins on what
| Measure | Winner | By |
|---|---|---|
| Larger area | Lake Erie | 1.01× |
| Farther north | Lake Erie | 3.1° of latitude |
| Stretched more on a web map | Lake Erie | 1.8× against 1.7× |
Both against the same yardsticks
| Yardstick | Lake Erie | Maryland |
|---|---|---|
| Belgium 30,700 km² | 0.84× | 0.83× |
| United Kingdom 244,000 km² | 0.11× | 0.10× |
| Germany 358,000 km² | 0.07× | 0.07× |
| Japan 374,000 km² | 0.07× | 0.07× |
| France 548,000 km² | 0.05× | 0.05× |
| India 3,151,000 km² | 0.01× | 0.01× |
| Brazil 8,473,000 km² | 1 in 329 | 1 in 333 |
| United States 9,447,000 km² | 1 in 367 | 1 in 371 |
| Russia 16,980,000 km² | 1 in 660 | 1 in 667 |
Each figure is the place's area divided by the yardstick's.
Side by side
| Lake Erie | Maryland | |
|---|---|---|
| Is a | Lakelake on sizeversus | StateUnited States |
| Area, measured | 25,700 km²9,940 mi² | 25,500 km²9,830 mi² |
| Area, published | 25,700 km²Wikidata | 32,100 km²Wikidata |
| Rank by area | 11th of 104lakes | – |
| Greatest depth | 65 mWikidata | – |
| Volume | 483 km³ | – |
| Latitude range | 41°N to 43°N | 38°N to 40°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 the United States and Canada contain or lie within 4 km of the outline of Lake Erie. 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 Lake Erie
Similar in size to Maryland
More comparisons
Send it to someone who won’t believe it
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