Red Sea and Sweden are almost exactly the same size

The Red Sea (sea) covers about 446,000 km² (172,000 mi²) and Sweden (country) about 446,000 km² (172,000 mi²). Their outlines are laid over each other below at one scale. The Red Sea outline is Natural Earth’s, checked against the published area.

446,000km²Red Sea
446,000km²Sweden

200 km

Red Sea
Sweden

What fits

Sweden is 100% of the size of Red Sea.
The measured areas differ by 16.5 km², less than half a percent: closer than the measurement itself is certain.
Measured in Belgiums: Red Sea is about 14.5, Sweden about 14.5.

How they differ

Their centres are about 5,000 km apart.
On a standard web map Sweden looks larger than Red Sea: Red Sea at 20°N is drawn about 1.1× too large and Sweden at 62°N about 4.7×, so the map shows Sweden as 4.10× the size of Red Sea, when Red Sea is 1.00× the size of Sweden.
Together Red Sea and Sweden cover 892,000 km², close to the size of Nigeria (907,000 km², 1.7% bigger).
Sweden's centre is 42.2° of latitude, about 4,690 km, farther north than Red Sea's.
The Red Sea is a sea and ranks 13th of the 42 seas on sizeversus by area.
Sweden ranks 58th of 212 countries by area.
Laid out flat, the Red Sea stretches about 1,740 km north to south and 1,000 km east to west; Sweden about 1,520 km by 655 km.
Wikidata’s published figure of 446,000 km² agrees with our measured 446,000 km², to within 2%.

Who wins on what

Measure	Winner	By
Larger area	Red Sea	1.00×
Farther north	Sweden	42.2° of latitude
Stretched more on a web map	Sweden	4.7× against 1.1×

Both against the same yardsticks

Yardstick	Red Sea	Sweden
Belgium 30,700 km²	14.5×	14.5×
United Kingdom 244,000 km²	1.83×	1.83×
Germany 358,000 km²	1.25×	1.25×
Japan 374,000 km²	1.19×	1.19×
France 548,000 km²	0.81×	0.81×
India 3,151,000 km²	0.14×	0.14×
Brazil 8,473,000 km²	0.05×	0.05×
United States 9,447,000 km²	0.05×	0.05×
Russia 16,980,000 km²	0.03×	0.03×

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

Side by side

	Red Sea	Sweden
Is a	Seasea on sizeversus	CountryEurope
Area, measured	446,000 km²172,000 mi²	446,000 km²172,000 mi²
Area, published	446,000 km²Wikidata	447,000 km²Wikidata
Rank by area	13th of 42seas	58th of 212countries
Greatest depth	3,040 mWikidata	–
Latitude range	12°N to 28°N	55°N to 69°N
On the shore	6 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 Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Eritrea, Yemen, Sudan and Djibouti lie within 25 km of the outline of the Red Sea. 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 Red Sea

Similar in size to Sweden

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