Lake Erie is 1.01× the size of North Macedonia

Lake Erie (lake) covers about 25,700 km² (9,940 mi²) and North Macedonia (country) about 25,400 km² (9,800 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
25,400km²North Macedonia

100 km

Lake Erie
North Macedonia

What fits

North Macedonia is 99% of the size of Lake Erie.
Lake Erie is larger by 351 km² (136 mi²), which is 1.4% of the area of North Macedonia.
Measured in Belgiums: Lake Erie is about 0.84, North Macedonia about 0.83.

How they differ

Their centres are about 7,920 km apart.
Together Lake Erie and North Macedonia cover 51,100 km², close to the size of Costa Rica (51,200 km², 0.1% bigger).
The gap between them, 351 km², is about the size of Grenada (347 km²).
Lake Erie's centre is 0.6° of latitude, about 60 km, farther north than North Macedonia's.
Lake Erie is a lake and ranks 11th of the 104 lakes on sizeversus by area.
North Macedonia ranks 148th of 212 countries by area.
Laid out flat, Lake Erie stretches about 192 km north to south and 378 km east to west; North Macedonia about 169 km by 213 km.
Poured over North Macedonia, 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	0.6° of latitude

Both against the same yardsticks

Yardstick	Lake Erie	North Macedonia
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 334
United States 9,447,000 km²	1 in 367	1 in 372
Russia 16,980,000 km²	1 in 660	1 in 669

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

Side by side

	Lake Erie	North Macedonia
Is a	Lakelake on sizeversus	CountryEurope
Area, measured	25,700 km²9,940 mi²	25,400 km²9,800 mi²
Area, published	25,700 km²Wikidata	25,700 km²Wikidata
Rank by area	11th of 104lakes	148th of 212countries
Greatest depth	65 mWikidata	–
Volume	483 km³	–
Latitude range	41°N to 43°N	41°N to 42°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 North Macedonia

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