Sea
Black Sea
Natural Earth’s outline of the Black Sea measures about 422,000 km² (163,000 mi²), the 14th largest of the 42 seas on sizeversus, and 97% of the size of Iraq.
200 km
- Iraq
- Black Sea
The numbers
- 422,000km²Area, measured163,000 mi² · Natural Earth outline
- 436,000km²Area, publishedWikidata · 3.3% above our measure
- 2,206mGreatest depthaverage about 1,296 m
- 547,000km³VolumeWikidata
The area is measured from the outline drawn above, on the WGS84 ellipsoid; the published figure is shown beside it, and a water body is kept only if the two are within 10%.
What the numbers say about the Black Sea
- The Arabian Sea, the largest of the 42 seas ranked on sizeversus, is 9.78× the size of the Black Sea; the Black Sea ranks 14th.
- The Black Sea sits between the Red Sea (446,000 km²) and the Caspian Sea (379,000 km²) in the ranking.
- Counted as a country, the Black Sea would be larger than 153 of the 212 countries listed on sizeversus and would rank 60th by area, between Iraq (437,000 km²) and Paraguay (400,000 km²).
- It is larger than 49 of the 51 US states and districts (the biggest of them is California, 410,000 km²) and smaller than 2.
- It is larger than 25 of the 31 provinces and regions of China (the biggest of them is Gansu, 406,000 km²) and smaller than 6.
- The closest US state is California (410,000 km²): the Black Sea is 1.03× the size of California.
- Wikidata records a greatest depth of 2,206 m; with its volume that gives an average depth of about 1,296 m.
- Wikidata records a volume of 547,000 km³. Poured over Iraq (437,000 km²), that water would stand 1,251 m deep.
- On a standard web map (Web Mercator), a place at 43°N is drawn about 1.9× too large in area, so the Black Sea looks bigger there than it is.
- Laid out flat, the Black Sea stretches about 693 km north to south and 1,170 km east to west.
- Our measured 422,000 km² is 3.3% below Wikidata’s published figure of 436,000 km². Published areas of lakes and seas move with the water level and with what is counted, so a few percent is expected.
About the same size as
Countries
On the shore
Natural Earth’s outlines of Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, Romania, Bulgaria and Georgia lie within 25 km of the outline of the Black 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.
Where the Black Sea ranks
The Black Sea is the 14th largest of the 42 seas on sizeversus, ranked by measured area.
Compare the Black Sea
Share this outline
Sources and method
- Outline
- Natural Earth, 1:10m Marine Areas (geography_marine_polys), public domain (Marine Areas (geography_marine_polys)). Natural Earth draws marine areas for labels and cuts them at named sub-areas; the outline is kept because its area matches the published one.
- Boundary
- A lake or a sea has no legal boundary of its own. The outline is a cartographic one, and the page says so by showing the measured area beside the published one.
- Area basis
- Measured outline: computed on the WGS84 ellipsoid from the full-detail outline and shown rounded. Published figure: Wikidata (CC0), fetched 2026-11-11. An outline is kept within 10% of the published figure and matched to other places automatically within 5%.
- Depth, volume, height
- As recorded in Wikidata; a volume that cannot be right for the area and depth is left out.
- Shore
- Countries whose Natural Earth outline contains or comes close to the water's outline; computed, not a statement of ownership.
- Drawing
- Each outline is projected with an equal-area projection centred on its own centroid, so areas stay true and two can be laid over each other.
- Data built
- 2026-11-11