Lake Ladoga is 1.01× the size of Kuwait

Lake Ladoga (lake) covers about 17,700 km² (6,820 mi²) and Kuwait (country) about 17,500 km² (6,750 mi²). Below, both outlines are drawn at one scale and centred on each other. The Lake Ladoga outline is Natural Earth’s, checked against the published area.

17,700km²Lake Ladoga
17,500km²Kuwait

50 km

Lake Ladoga
Kuwait

What fits

Kuwait is 99% of the size of Lake Ladoga.
Lake Ladoga is larger by 192 km² (74.0 mi²), which is 1.1% of the area of Kuwait.
Measured in Belgiums: Lake Ladoga is about 0.58, Kuwait about 0.57.

How they differ

Their centres are about 3,700 km apart.
A standard web map misstates the comparison: Lake Ladoga at 61°N is drawn about 4.2× too large and Kuwait at 29°N about 1.3×, so the map shows Lake Ladoga as 3.24× the size of Kuwait instead of 1.01×.
Together Lake Ladoga and Kuwait cover 35,100 km², close to the size of Taiwan (36,200 km², 3.0% bigger).
The gap between them, 192 km², is about the size of Aruba (170 km²).
Lake Ladoga's centre is 31.5° of latitude, about 3,500 km, farther north than Kuwait's.
Lake Ladoga is a lake and ranks 14th of the 104 lakes on sizeversus by area.
Kuwait ranks 156th of 212 countries by area.
Laid out flat, Lake Ladoga stretches about 209 km north to south and 171 km east to west; Kuwait about 174 km by 185 km.
Poured over Kuwait, the 838 km³ that Wikidata records for Lake Ladoga would stand 48 m deep.
Wikidata’s published figure of 17,700 km² agrees with our measured 17,700 km², to within 2%.

Who wins on what

Measure	Winner	By
Larger area	Lake Ladoga	1.01×
Farther north	Lake Ladoga	31.5° of latitude
Stretched more on a web map	Lake Ladoga	4.2× against 1.3×

Both against the same yardsticks

Yardstick	Lake Ladoga	Kuwait
Belgium 30,700 km²	0.58×	0.57×
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 480	1 in 485
United States 9,447,000 km²	1 in 535	1 in 541
Russia 16,980,000 km²	1 in 961	1 in 972

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

Side by side

	Lake Ladoga	Kuwait
Is a	Lakelake on sizeversus	CountryAsia
Area, measured	17,700 km²6,820 mi²	17,500 km²6,750 mi²
Area, published	17,700 km²Wikidata	17,800 km²Wikidata
Rank by area	14th of 104lakes	156th of 212countries
Greatest depth	230 mWikidata	–
Volume	838 km³	–
Latitude range	60°N to 62°N	29°N to 30°N
On the shore	1 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 Russia contain or lie within 4 km of the outline of Lake Ladoga. 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 Ladoga

Similar in size to Kuwait

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