Yunnan is 1.11× the size of Great Barrier Reef

Yunnan (province) covers about 385,000 km² (149,000 mi²) and the Great Barrier Reef (reef) about 348,000 km² (135,000 mi²). Below, both outlines are drawn at one scale and centred on each other. The Great Barrier Reef outline is Natural Earth’s, checked against the published area.

385,000km²Yunnan
348,000km²Great Barrier Reef

200 km

Yunnan
Great Barrier Reef

What fits

Great Barrier Reef is 90% of the size of Yunnan.
Yunnan is larger by 37,000 km² (14,300 mi²), which is 11% of the area of Great Barrier Reef.
Measured in Belgiums: Yunnan is about 12.6, Great Barrier Reef about 11.4.

How they differ

Their centres are about 6,970 km apart.
Together Yunnan and Great Barrier Reef cover 734,000 km², close to the size of Chile (736,000 km², 0.4% bigger).
The gap between them, 37,000 km², is about the size of Netherlands (37,100 km²).
Yunnan's centre is 43.1° of latitude, about 4,800 km, farther north than Great Barrier Reef's.
Yunnan is a province of China; it is not drawn with its waters removed, and its measured area is the Natural Earth outline's.
The Great Barrier Reef is a reef and ranks 17th of the 42 seas on sizeversus by area.
Laid out flat, Yunnan stretches about 901 km north to south and 883 km east to west; the Great Barrier Reef about 1,580 km by 1,130 km.
Wikidata’s published figure of 348,000 km² agrees with our measured 348,000 km², to within 2%.

Who wins on what

Measure	Winner	By
Larger area	Yunnan	1.11×
Farther north	Yunnan	43.1° of latitude
Stretched more on a web map	Yunnan	1.2× against 1.1×

Both against the same yardsticks

Yardstick	Yunnan	Great Barrier Reef
Belgium 30,700 km²	12.6×	11.4×
United Kingdom 244,000 km²	1.58×	1.43×
Germany 358,000 km²	1.08×	0.97×
Japan 374,000 km²	1.03×	0.93×
France 548,000 km²	0.70×	0.64×
India 3,151,000 km²	0.12×	0.11×
Brazil 8,473,000 km²	0.05×	0.04×
United States 9,447,000 km²	0.04×	0.04×
Russia 16,980,000 km²	0.02×	0.02×

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

Side by side

	Yunnan	Great Barrier Reef
Is a	ProvinceChina	Reefsea on sizeversus
Area, measured	385,000 km²149,000 mi²	348,000 km²135,000 mi²
Area, published	394,000 km²Wikidata	348,000 km²Wikidata
Rank by area	–	17th of 42seas
Latitude range	21°N to 29°N	24°S to 10°S
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 Australia lie within 25 km of the outline of the Great Barrier Reef. 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 Yunnan

Similar in size to Great Barrier Reef

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