West Virginia is 1.05× the size of Lake Huron

West Virginia (state) covers about 62,700 km² (24,200 mi²) and Lake Huron (lake) about 59,900 km² (23,100 mi²). Below, both outlines are drawn at one scale and centred on each other. The Lake Huron outline is Natural Earth’s, checked against the published area.

62,700km²West Virginia
59,900km²Lake Huron

100 km

West Virginia
Lake Huron

What fits

Lake Huron is 96% of the size of West Virginia.
West Virginia is larger by 2,800 km² (1,080 mi²), which is 4.7% of the area of Lake Huron.
Measured in Belgiums: West Virginia is about 2.05, Lake Huron about 1.95.

How they differ

Their centres are about 714 km apart.
On a standard web map Lake Huron looks larger than West Virginia: West Virginia at 39°N is drawn about 1.6× too large and Lake Huron at 45°N about 2.0×, so the map shows Lake Huron as 1.16× the size of West Virginia, when West Virginia is 1.05× the size of Lake Huron.
Together West Virginia and Lake Huron cover 123,000 km², close to the size of Eritrea (123,000 km², 0.1% smaller).
The gap between them, 2,800 km², is about the size of Samoa (2,780 km²).
Lake Huron's centre is 6.3° of latitude, about 700 km, farther north than West Virginia's.
West 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.
Lake Huron is a lake and ranks 4th of the 104 lakes on sizeversus by area.
Laid out flat, West Virginia stretches about 382 km north to south and 424 km east to west; Lake Huron about 373 km by 400 km.
Poured over West Virginia, the 3,538 km³ that Wikidata records for Lake Huron would stand 56 m deep.
Wikidata’s published figure of 59,600 km² agrees with our measured 59,900 km², to within 2%.

Who wins on what

Measure	Winner	By
Larger area	West Virginia	1.05×
Farther north	Lake Huron	6.3° of latitude
Stretched more on a web map	Lake Huron	2.0× against 1.6×

Both against the same yardsticks

Yardstick	West Virginia	Lake Huron
Belgium 30,700 km²	2.05×	1.95×
United Kingdom 244,000 km²	0.26×	0.25×
Germany 358,000 km²	0.18×	0.17×
Japan 374,000 km²	0.17×	0.16×
France 548,000 km²	0.11×	0.11×
India 3,151,000 km²	0.02×	0.02×
Brazil 8,473,000 km²	0.01×	0.01×
United States 9,447,000 km²	0.01×	0.01×
Russia 16,980,000 km²	1 in 271	1 in 283

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

Side by side

	West Virginia	Lake Huron
Is a	StateUnited States	Lakelake on sizeversus
Area, measured	62,700 km²24,200 mi²	59,900 km²23,100 mi²
Area, published	62,800 km²Wikidata	59,600 km²Wikidata
Rank by area	–	4th of 104lakes
Greatest depth	–	230 mWikidata
Volume	–	3,538 km³
Latitude range	37°N to 41°N	43°N to 46°N
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 Canada and the United States contain or lie within 4 km of the outline of Lake Huron. 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 West Virginia

Similar in size to Lake Huron

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