Rwanda is 1.02× the size of Lake Winnipeg

Rwanda (country) covers about 25,300 km² (9,770 mi²) and Lake Winnipeg (lake) about 24,800 km² (9,570 mi²). Below, both outlines are drawn at one scale and centred on each other. The Lake Winnipeg outline is Natural Earth’s, checked against the published area.

25,300km²Rwanda
24,800km²Lake Winnipeg

50 km

Rwanda
Lake Winnipeg

What fits

Lake Winnipeg is 98% of the size of Rwanda.
Rwanda is larger by 513 km² (198 mi²), which is 2.1% of the area of Lake Winnipeg.
Measured in Belgiums: Rwanda is about 0.83, Lake Winnipeg about 0.81.

How they differ

Their centres are about 12,600 km apart.
On a standard web map Lake Winnipeg looks larger than Rwanda: Rwanda at 2°S is drawn about 1.0× too large and Lake Winnipeg at 53°N about 2.7×, so the map shows Lake Winnipeg as 2.65× the size of Rwanda, when Rwanda is 1.02× the size of Lake Winnipeg.
Together Rwanda and Lake Winnipeg cover 50,100 km², close to the size of Costa Rica (51,200 km², 2.1% bigger).
The gap between them, 513 km², is about the size of Singapore (511 km²).
Lake Winnipeg's centre is 54.6° of latitude, about 6,070 km, farther north than Rwanda's.
Rwanda ranks 149th of 212 countries by area.
Lake Winnipeg is a lake and ranks 12th of the 104 lakes on sizeversus by area.
Laid out flat, Rwanda stretches about 197 km north to south and 226 km east to west; Lake Winnipeg about 447 km by 204 km.
Poured over Rwanda, the 294 km³ that Wikidata records for Lake Winnipeg would stand 12 m deep.
Wikidata’s published figure of 24,400 km² agrees with our measured 24,800 km², to within 2%.

Who wins on what

Measure	Winner	By
Larger area	Rwanda	1.02×
Farther north	Lake Winnipeg	54.6° of latitude
Stretched more on a web map	Lake Winnipeg	2.7× against 1.0×

Both against the same yardsticks

Yardstick	Rwanda	Lake Winnipeg
Belgium 30,700 km²	0.83×	0.81×
United Kingdom 244,000 km²	0.10×	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 335	1 in 342
United States 9,447,000 km²	1 in 373	1 in 381
Russia 16,980,000 km²	1 in 671	1 in 685

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

Side by side

	Rwanda	Lake Winnipeg
Is a	CountryAfrica	Lakelake on sizeversus
Area, measured	25,300 km²9,770 mi²	24,800 km²9,570 mi²
Area, published	26,300 km²Wikidata	24,400 km²Wikidata
Rank by area	149th of 212countries	12th of 104lakes
Greatest depth	–	36 mWikidata
Volume	–	294 km³
Latitude range	3°S to 1°S	50°N to 54°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 Canada contain or lie within 4 km of the outline of Lake Winnipeg. 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 Rwanda

Similar in size to Lake Winnipeg

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