Michigan is 1.03× the size of Persian Gulf

Michigan (state) covers about 250,000 km² (96,500 mi²) and the Persian Gulf (gulf) about 243,000 km² (94,000 mi²). Below, both outlines are drawn at one scale and centred on each other. The Persian Gulf outline is Natural Earth’s, checked against the published area.

250,000km²Michigan
243,000km²Persian Gulf

200 km

Michigan
Persian Gulf

What fits

Persian Gulf is 97% of the size of Michigan.
Michigan is larger by 6,620 km² (2,550 mi²), which is 2.7% of the area of Persian Gulf.
Measured in Belgiums: Michigan is about 8.15, Persian Gulf about 7.94.

How they differ

Their centres are about 11,000 km apart.
A standard web map misstates the comparison: Michigan at 45°N is drawn about 2.0× too large and Persian Gulf at 27°N about 1.3×, so the map shows Michigan as 1.63× the size of Persian Gulf instead of 1.03×.
Together Michigan and Persian Gulf cover 493,000 km², close to the size of Spain (499,000 km², 1.2% bigger).
The gap between them, 6,620 km², is about the size of Palestine (6,070 km²).
Michigan's centre is 18.0° of latitude, about 2,000 km, farther north than Persian Gulf's.
Michigan 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.
The Persian Gulf is a gulf and ranks 22nd of the 42 seas on sizeversus by area.
Laid out flat, Michigan stretches about 737 km north to south and 646 km east to west; the Persian Gulf about 729 km by 933 km.
Our measured 243,000 km² is 3.0% below Wikidata’s published figure of 251,000 km². Published areas of lakes and seas move with the water level and with what is counted, so a few percent is expected.

Who wins on what

Measure	Winner	By
Larger area	Michigan	1.03×
Farther north	Michigan	18.0° of latitude
Stretched more on a web map	Michigan	2.0× against 1.3×

Both against the same yardsticks

Yardstick	Michigan	Persian Gulf
Belgium 30,700 km²	8.15×	7.94×
United Kingdom 244,000 km²	1.03×	1.00×
Germany 358,000 km²	0.70×	0.68×
Japan 374,000 km²	0.67×	0.65×
France 548,000 km²	0.46×	0.44×
India 3,151,000 km²	0.08×	0.08×
Brazil 8,473,000 km²	0.03×	0.03×
United States 9,447,000 km²	0.03×	0.03×
Russia 16,980,000 km²	0.01×	0.01×

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

Side by side

	Michigan	Persian Gulf
Is a	StateUnited States	Gulfsea on sizeversus
Area, measured	250,000 km²96,500 mi²	243,000 km²94,000 mi²
Area, published	250,000 km²Wikidata	251,000 km²Wikidata
Rank by area	–	22nd of 42seas
Greatest depth	–	90 mWikidata
Latitude range	42°N to 48°N	24°N to 31°N
On the shore	–	8 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 Iran, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Iraq and Bahrain lie within 25 km of the outline of the Persian Gulf. 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 Michigan

Similar in size to Persian Gulf

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