Sea
Yellow Sea
Natural Earth’s outline of the Yellow Sea measures about 377,000 km² (146,000 mi²), the 16th largest of the 42 seas on sizeversus, and about the same size as Japan.
500 km
- Yellow Sea
- Japan
The numbers
- 377,000km²Area, measured146,000 mi² · Natural Earth outline
- 380,000km²Area, publishedWikidata · agrees within 2%
- 152mGreatest depthaverage about 0 m
- 17km³VolumeWikidata
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 Yellow Sea
- The Arabian Sea, the largest of the 42 seas ranked on sizeversus, is 10.9× the size of the Yellow Sea; the Yellow Sea ranks 16th.
- The Yellow Sea sits between the Caspian Sea (379,000 km²) and the Great Barrier Reef (348,000 km²) in the ranking.
- Counted as a country, the Yellow Sea would be larger than 150 of the 212 countries listed on sizeversus and would rank 63rd by area, between Norway (382,000 km²) and Japan (374,000 km²).
- It is larger than 47 of the 51 US states and districts (the biggest of them is New Mexico, 315,000 km²) and smaller than 4.
- It is larger than 23 of the 31 provinces and regions of China (the biggest of them is Guangxi, 237,000 km²) and smaller than 8.
- The closest US state is Montana (379,000 km²): the Yellow Sea is about the same size as Montana.
- Wikidata records a greatest depth of 152 m; with its volume that gives an average depth of about 0.0 m.
- Wikidata records a volume of 17 km³. Poured over Japan (374,000 km²), that water would stand 0.0 m deep.
- On a standard web map (Web Mercator), a place at 36°N is drawn about 1.5× too large in area, so the Yellow Sea looks bigger there than it is.
- Laid out flat, the Yellow Sea stretches about 895 km north to south and 704 km east to west.
- Wikidata’s published figure of 380,000 km² agrees with our measured 377,000 km², to within 2%.
About the same size as
Countries
On the shore
Natural Earth’s outlines of China, South Korea and North Korea lie within 25 km of the outline of the Yellow 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 Yellow Sea ranks
The Yellow Sea is the 16th largest of the 42 seas on sizeversus, ranked by measured area.
Compare the Yellow 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