Sea
Greenland Sea
Natural Earth’s outline of the Greenland Sea measures about 1,183,000 km² (457,000 mi²), the 8th largest of the 42 seas on sizeversus, and 97% of the size of South Africa.
500 km
- South Africa
- Greenland Sea
The numbers
- 1,183,000km²Area, measured457,000 mi² · Natural Earth outline
- 1,205,000km²Area, publishedWikidata · agrees within 2%
- 5,600mGreatest depthWikidata
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 Greenland Sea
- The Arabian Sea, the largest of the 42 seas ranked on sizeversus, is 3.49× the size of the Greenland Sea; the Greenland Sea ranks 8th.
- The Greenland Sea sits between the Barents Sea (1,378,000 km²) and the Sea of Japan (959,000 km²) in the ranking.
- Counted as a country, the Greenland Sea would be larger than 188 of the 212 countries listed on sizeversus and would rank 25th by area, between South Africa (1,220,000 km²) and Niger (1,181,000 km²).
- It is larger than 50 of the 51 US states and districts (the biggest of them is Texas, 685,000 km²) and smaller than 1.
- It is larger than 30 of the 31 provinces and regions of China (the biggest of them is Inner Mongolia, 1,144,000 km²) and smaller than 1.
- The closest Chinese province is Inner Mongolia (1,144,000 km²): the Greenland Sea is 1.03× the size of Inner Mongolia.
- Wikidata records a greatest depth of 5,600 m.
- On a standard web map (Web Mercator), a place at 75°N is drawn about 14.5× too large in area, so the Greenland Sea looks bigger there than it is.
- Laid out flat, the Greenland Sea stretches about 1,990 km north to south and 1,380 km east to west.
- Wikidata’s published figure of 1,205,000 km² agrees with our measured 1,183,000 km², to within 2%.
About the same size as
Countries
Chinese provinces
On the shore
Natural Earth’s outlines of Greenland, Norway and Iceland lie within 25 km of the outline of the Greenland 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 Greenland Sea ranks
The Greenland Sea is the 8th largest of the 42 seas on sizeversus, ranked by measured area.
Compare the Greenland 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