Gulf
Gulf of Finland
Natural Earth’s outline of the Gulf of Finland measures about 30,400 km² (11,700 mi²), the 35th largest of the 42 seas on sizeversus, and about the same size as Belgium.
100 km
- Belgium
- Gulf of Finland
The numbers
- 30,400km²Area, measured11,700 mi² · Natural Earth outline
- 29,500km²Area, publishedWikidata · 3.0% below our measure
- 121mGreatest 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 Finland
- The Arabian Sea, the largest of the 42 seas ranked on sizeversus, is 136× the size of the Gulf of Finland; the Gulf of Finland ranks 35th.
- The Gulf of Finland sits between the Sea of Azov (37,600 km²) and Kattegat (24,000 km²) in the ranking.
- Counted as a country, the Gulf of Finland would be larger than 72 of the 212 countries listed on sizeversus and would rank 141st by area, between Belgium (30,700 km²) and Lesotho (30,100 km²).
- It is larger than 10 of the 51 US states and districts (the biggest of them is Maryland, 25,500 km²) and smaller than 41.
- It is larger than 3 of the 31 provinces and regions of China (the biggest of them is Beijing, 16,300 km²) and smaller than 28.
- The closest Chinese province is Hainan (33,800 km²): the Gulf of Finland is 90% of the size of Hainan.
- Wikidata records a greatest depth of 121 m.
- On a standard web map (Web Mercator), a place at 60°N is drawn about 4.0× too large in area, so the Gulf of Finland looks bigger there than it is.
- Laid out flat, the Gulf of Finland stretches about 177 km north to south and 403 km east to west.
- Our measured 30,400 km² is 3.0% above Wikidata’s published figure of 29,500 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 Finland, Russia and Estonia lie within 25 km of the outline of the Gulf of Finland. 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 Finland ranks
The Gulf of Finland is the 35th largest of the 42 seas on sizeversus, ranked by measured area.
Compare the Gulf of Finland
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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