Yunnan is 1.02× the size of Yellow Sea

Yunnan (province) covers about 385,000 km² (149,000 mi²) and the Yellow Sea (sea) about 377,000 km² (146,000 mi²). Below, both outlines are drawn at one scale and centred on each other. The Yellow Sea outline is Natural Earth’s, checked against the published area.

385,000km²Yunnan
377,000km²Yellow Sea

200 km

Yunnan
Yellow Sea

What fits

Yellow Sea is 98% of the size of Yunnan.
Yunnan is larger by 8,100 km² (3,130 mi²), which is 2.1% of the area of Yellow Sea.
Measured in Belgiums: Yunnan is about 12.6, Yellow Sea about 12.3.

How they differ

Their centres are about 2,410 km apart.
On a standard web map Yellow Sea looks larger than Yunnan: Yunnan at 25°N is drawn about 1.2× too large and Yellow Sea at 36°N about 1.5×, so the map shows Yellow Sea as 1.22× the size of Yunnan, when Yunnan is 1.02× the size of Yellow Sea.
Together Yunnan and Yellow Sea cover 763,000 km², close to the size of Zambia (752,000 km², 1.4% smaller).
The gap between them, 8,100 km², is about the size of Lebanon (10,000 km²).
Yellow Sea's centre is 10.8° of latitude, about 1,200 km, farther north than Yunnan'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 Yellow Sea is a sea and ranks 16th 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 Yellow Sea about 895 km by 704 km.
Poured over Yunnan, the 17 km³ that Wikidata records for the Yellow Sea would stand 0.0 m deep.
Wikidata’s published figure of 380,000 km² agrees with our measured 377,000 km², to within 2%.

Who wins on what

Measure	Winner	By
Larger area	Yunnan	1.02×
Farther north	Yellow Sea	10.8° of latitude
Stretched more on a web map	Yellow Sea	1.5× against 1.2×

Both against the same yardsticks

Yardstick	Yunnan	Yellow Sea
Belgium 30,700 km²	12.6×	12.3×
United Kingdom 244,000 km²	1.58×	1.55×
Germany 358,000 km²	1.08×	1.05×
Japan 374,000 km²	1.03×	1.01×
France 548,000 km²	0.70×	0.69×
India 3,151,000 km²	0.12×	0.12×
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	Yellow Sea
Is a	ProvinceChina	Seasea on sizeversus
Area, measured	385,000 km²149,000 mi²	377,000 km²146,000 mi²
Area, published	394,000 km²Wikidata	380,000 km²Wikidata
Rank by area	–	16th of 42seas
Greatest depth	–	152 mWikidata
Volume	–	17 km³
Latitude range	21°N to 29°N	32°N to 40°N
On the shore	–	3 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 China, South Korea and North Korea lie within 25 km of the outline of the Yellow 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 Yunnan

Similar in size to Yellow 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