Lake Victoria is 1.01× the size of Sri Lanka

Lake Victoria (lake) covers about 67,000 km² (25,900 mi²) and Sri Lanka (country) about 66,300 km² (25,600 mi²). Below, both outlines are drawn at one scale and centred on each other. The Lake Victoria outline is Natural Earth’s, checked against the published area.

67,000km²Lake Victoria
66,300km²Sri Lanka

100 km

Lake Victoria
Sri Lanka

What fits

Sri Lanka is 99% of the size of Lake Victoria.
Lake Victoria is larger by 741 km² (286 mi²), which is 1.1% of the area of Sri Lanka.
Measured in Belgiums: Lake Victoria is about 2.19, Sri Lanka about 2.16.

How they differ

Their centres are about 5,390 km apart.
On a standard web map Sri Lanka looks larger than Lake Victoria: Lake Victoria at 1°S is drawn about 1.0× too large and Sri Lanka at 8°N about 1.0×, so the map shows Sri Lanka as 1.01× the size of Lake Victoria, when Lake Victoria is 1.01× the size of Sri Lanka.
Together Lake Victoria and Sri Lanka cover 133,000 km², close to the size of Greece (131,000 km², 1.5% smaller).
The gap between them, 741 km², is about the size of Dominica (730 km²).
Sri Lanka's centre is 8.7° of latitude, about 970 km, farther north than Lake Victoria's.
Lake Victoria is a lake and ranks 3rd of the 104 lakes on sizeversus by area.
Sri Lanka ranks 123rd of 212 countries by area.
Laid out flat, Lake Victoria stretches about 390 km north to south and 361 km east to west; Sri Lanka about 434 km by 245 km.
Poured over Sri Lanka, the 2,750 km³ that Wikidata records for Lake Victoria would stand 41 m deep.
Wikidata’s published figure of 68,100 km² agrees with our measured 67,000 km², to within 2%.

Who wins on what

Measure	Winner	By
Larger area	Lake Victoria	1.01×
Farther north	Sri Lanka	8.7° of latitude

Both against the same yardsticks

Yardstick	Lake Victoria	Sri Lanka
Belgium 30,700 km²	2.19×	2.16×
United Kingdom 244,000 km²	0.27×	0.27×
Germany 358,000 km²	0.19×	0.19×
Japan 374,000 km²	0.18×	0.18×
France 548,000 km²	0.12×	0.12×
India 3,151,000 km²	0.02×	0.02×
Brazil 8,473,000 km²	0.01×	0.01×
United States 9,447,000 km²	0.01×	0.01×
Russia 16,980,000 km²	1 in 253	1 in 256

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

Side by side

	Lake Victoria	Sri Lanka
Is a	Lakelake on sizeversus	CountryAsia
Area, measured	67,000 km²25,900 mi²	66,300 km²25,600 mi²
Area, published	68,100 km²Wikidata	65,600 km²Wikidata
Rank by area	3rd of 104lakes	123rd of 212countries
Greatest depth	83 mWikidata	–
Volume	2,750 km³	–
Latitude range	3°S to 0°N	6°N to 10°N
On the shore	3 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 Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya contain or lie within 4 km of the outline of Lake Victoria. 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 Victoria

Similar in size to Sri Lanka

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