Gulf
Gulf of Bothnia
Natural Earth’s outline of the Gulf of Bothnia measures about 120,000 km² (46,400 mi²), the 28th largest of the 42 seas on sizeversus, and about the same size as Malawi.
100 km
- Gulf of Bothnia
- Malawi
The numbers
- 120,000km²Area, measured46,400 mi² · Natural Earth outline
- 117,000km²Area, publishedWikidata · 2.7% below our measure
- 295mGreatest 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 Gulf of Bothnia
- The Arabian Sea, the largest of the 42 seas ranked on sizeversus, is 34.4× the size of the Gulf of Bothnia; the Gulf of Bothnia ranks 28th.
- The Gulf of Bothnia sits between the Adriatic Sea (141,000 km²) and the Savu Sea (102,000 km²) in the ranking.
- Counted as a country, the Gulf of Bothnia would be larger than 112 of the 212 countries listed on sizeversus and would rank 101st by area, between North Korea (122,000 km²) and Malawi (119,000 km²).
- It is larger than 20 of the 51 US states and districts (the biggest of them is Louisiana, 120,000 km²) and smaller than 31.
- It is larger than 8 of the 31 provinces and regions of China (the biggest of them is Zhejiang, 101,000 km²) and smaller than 23.
- The closest Chinese province is Fujian (121,000 km²): the Gulf of Bothnia is about the same size as Fujian.
- Wikidata records a greatest depth of 295 m.
- On a standard web map (Web Mercator), a place at 62°N is drawn about 4.7× too large in area, so the Gulf of Bothnia looks bigger there than it is.
- Laid out flat, the Gulf of Bothnia stretches about 694 km north to south and 409 km east to west.
- Our measured 120,000 km² is 2.7% above Wikidata’s published figure of 117,000 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 Sweden and Finland lie within 25 km of the outline of the Gulf of Bothnia. 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 Gulf of Bothnia ranks
The Gulf of Bothnia is the 28th largest of the 42 seas on sizeversus, ranked by measured area.
Compare the Gulf of Bothnia
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