Solomon Sea is 1.01× the size of Chile

The Solomon Sea (sea) covers about 745,000 km² (288,000 mi²) and Chile (country) about 736,000 km² (284,000 mi²). Below, both outlines are drawn at one scale and centred on each other. The Solomon Sea outline is Natural Earth’s, checked against the published area.

745,000km²Solomon Sea
736,000km²Chile

500 km

Solomon Sea
Chile

What fits

Chile is 99% of the size of Solomon Sea.
Solomon Sea is larger by 8,450 km² (3,260 mi²), which is 1.1% of the area of Chile.
Measured in Belgiums: Solomon Sea is about 24.3, Chile about 24.0.

How they differ

Their centres are about 13,200 km apart.
On a standard web map Chile looks larger than Solomon Sea: Solomon Sea at 9°S is drawn about 1.0× too large and Chile at 36°S about 1.5×, so the map shows Chile as 1.48× the size of Solomon Sea, when Solomon Sea is 1.01× the size of Chile.
Together Solomon Sea and Chile cover 1,481,000 km², close to the size of Mongolia (1,565,000 km², 5.6% bigger).
The gap between them, 8,450 km², is about the size of Lebanon (10,000 km²).
Solomon Sea's centre is 27.5° of latitude, about 3,050 km, farther north than Chile's.
The Solomon Sea is a sea and ranks 12th of the 42 seas on sizeversus by area.
Chile ranks 39th of 212 countries by area.
Laid out flat, the Solomon Sea stretches about 837 km north to south and 1,660 km east to west; Chile about 4,230 km by 772 km.
Our measured 745,000 km² is 3.5% above Wikidata’s published figure of 720,000 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	Solomon Sea	1.01×
Farther north	Solomon Sea	27.5° of latitude
Stretched more on a web map	Chile	1.5× against 1.0×

Both against the same yardsticks

Yardstick	Solomon Sea	Chile
Belgium 30,700 km²	24.3×	24.0×
United Kingdom 244,000 km²	3.06×	3.02×
Germany 358,000 km²	2.08×	2.06×
Japan 374,000 km²	1.99×	1.97×
France 548,000 km²	1.36×	1.34×
India 3,151,000 km²	0.24×	0.23×
Brazil 8,473,000 km²	0.09×	0.09×
United States 9,447,000 km²	0.08×	0.08×
Russia 16,980,000 km²	0.04×	0.04×

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

Side by side

	Solomon Sea	Chile
Is a	Seasea on sizeversus	CountrySouth America
Area, measured	745,000 km²288,000 mi²	736,000 km²284,000 mi²
Area, published	720,000 km²Wikidata	756,000 km²Wikidata
Rank by area	12th of 42seas	39th of 212countries
Greatest depth	9,140 mWikidata	–
Latitude range	12°S to 4°S	56°S to 18°S
On the shore	2 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 Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands lie within 25 km of the outline of the Solomon 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 Solomon Sea

Similar in size to Chile

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