Sea · counted from 12 pieces
Mediterranean Sea
Natural Earth draws the Mediterranean Sea in 12 separate pieces, and this page counts them together. They measure about 2,521,000 km² (973,000 mi²), and 91% of the size of Argentina. Counted as one, the Mediterranean Sea would be the 4th largest of the 42 seas on sizeversus.
Natural Earth draws the Mediterranean as its central basin and cuts out its named marginal seas (Alboran, Balearic, Ligurian, Tyrrhenian, Ionian, Adriatic, Aegean, the Sea of Crete, the Gulf of Lion, the Gulf of Sidra and the Gulf of Gabès). This page adds them back; the Sea of Marmara and the straits are not counted.
- Argentina
- Mediterranean Sea
The numbers
- 2,521,000km²Area, measured973,000 mi² · Natural Earth outline
- 2,500,000km²Area, publishedWikidata · agrees within 2%
- 5,267mGreatest depthaverage about 1,523 m
- 3,839,000km³VolumeWikidata
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 Mediterranean Sea
- If it counted as one sea, the Mediterranean Sea would rank 4th of the 42 seas on sizeversus, behind the Caribbean Sea (2,829,000 km²) and ahead of the Bering Sea (2,232,000 km²).
- The largest piece, Central basin (Natural Earth’s Mediterranean polygon) (1,566,000 km²), is 62% of the whole; the smallest, Gulf of Gabès (8,900 km²), is 0.4%.
- Counted as a country, the Mediterranean Sea would be larger than 203 of the 212 countries listed on sizeversus and would rank 10th by area, between Kazakhstan (2,714,000 km²) and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (2,325,000 km²).
- It is larger than all 51 US states and districts.
- It is larger than all 31 provinces and regions of China.
- The closest US state is Alaska (1,505,000 km²): the Mediterranean Sea is 1.67× the size of Alaska.
- Wikidata records a greatest depth of 5,267 m; with its volume that gives an average depth of about 1,523 m.
- Wikidata records a volume of 3,839,000 km³. Poured over Argentina (2,783,000 km²), that water would stand 1,379 m deep.
- On a standard web map (Web Mercator), a place at 37°N is drawn about 1.6× too large in area, so the Mediterranean Sea looks bigger there than it is.
- Laid out flat, the Mediterranean Sea stretches about 1,720 km north to south and 3,730 km east to west.
- Counted as one, the 12 pieces measure 2,521,000 km². The published figure for the whole, 2,500,000 km² (Wikidata, for the whole), is 0.9% below it.
The 12 pieces of the Mediterranean Sea
Natural Earth draws each piece as its own outline; their areas add up to 2,521,000 km². Largest first.
- Central basin (Natural Earth’s Mediterranean polygon)1,566,000 km² · 62%
- Tyrrhenian Sea217,000 km² · 8.6%
- Ionian Sea172,000 km² · 6.8%
- Adriatic Sea141,000 km² · 5.6%
- Aegean Sea119,000 km² · 4.7%
- Balearic Sea79,300 km² · 3.1%
- Sea of Crete75,200 km² · 3.0%
- Gulf of Sidra58,300 km² · 2.3%
- Alboran Sea54,900 km² · 2.2%
- Gulf of Lion17,000 km² · 0.7%
- Ligurian Sea13,200 km² · 0.5%
- Gulf of Gabès8,900 km² · 0.4%
About the same size as
Countries
US states
Chinese provinces
On the shore
Natural Earth’s outlines of Greece, Italy, Turkey, Spain, France, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Croatia, Algeria, Albania and Morocco lie within 25 km of the outline of the Mediterranean 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 Mediterranean Sea ranks
Counted as one, the Mediterranean Sea would rank 4th of the 42 seas on sizeversus (its own pieces left out).
Compare the Mediterranean 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