Virginia is 1.02× the size of Savu Sea

Virginia (state) covers about 104,000 km² (40,000 mi²) and the Savu Sea (sea) about 102,000 km² (39,400 mi²). Below, both outlines are drawn at one scale and centred on each other. The Savu Sea outline is Natural Earth’s, checked against the published area.

104,000km²Virginia
102,000km²Savu Sea

200 km

Virginia
Savu Sea

What fits

Savu Sea is 98% of the size of Virginia.
Virginia is larger by 1,750 km² (677 mi²), which is 1.7% of the area of Savu Sea.
Measured in Belgiums: Virginia is about 3.38, Savu Sea about 3.32.

How they differ

Their centres are about 16,300 km apart.
A standard web map misstates the comparison: Virginia at 38°N is drawn about 1.6× too large and Savu Sea at 9°S about 1.0×, so the map shows Virginia as 1.57× the size of Savu Sea instead of 1.02×.
Together Virginia and Savu Sea cover 206,000 km², close to the size of Belarus (207,000 km², 0.9% bigger).
The gap between them, 1,750 km², is about the size of Comoros (1,670 km²).
Virginia's centre is 47.0° of latitude, about 5,230 km, farther north than Savu Sea's.
Virginia 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 Savu Sea is a sea and ranks 29th of the 42 seas on sizeversus by area.
Laid out flat, Virginia stretches about 323 km north to south and 746 km east to west; the Savu Sea about 287 km by 730 km.
Our measured 102,000 km² is 2.9% below Wikidata’s published figure of 105,000 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	Virginia	1.02×
Farther north	Virginia	47.0° of latitude
Stretched more on a web map	Virginia	1.6× against 1.0×

Both against the same yardsticks

Yardstick	Virginia	Savu Sea
Belgium 30,700 km²	3.38×	3.32×
United Kingdom 244,000 km²	0.43×	0.42×
Germany 358,000 km²	0.29×	0.29×
Japan 374,000 km²	0.28×	0.27×
France 548,000 km²	0.19×	0.19×
India 3,151,000 km²	0.03×	0.03×
Brazil 8,473,000 km²	0.01×	0.01×
United States 9,447,000 km²	0.01×	0.01×
Russia 16,980,000 km²	0.01×	0.01×

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

Side by side

	Virginia	Savu Sea
Is a	StateUnited States	Seasea on sizeversus
Area, measured	104,000 km²40,000 mi²	102,000 km²39,400 mi²
Area, published	111,000 km²Wikidata	105,000 km²Wikidata
Rank by area	–	29th of 42seas
Greatest depth	–	3,470 mWikidata
Latitude range	37°N to 39°N	11°S to 8°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 Indonesia and East Timor lie within 25 km of the outline of the Savu 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 Virginia

Similar in size to Savu Sea

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