We know our Great Lakes are awesome. Here’s how they stack up.
4 min read
By Nick Routley, Visual Capitalist
In many parts of the world, you don’t have to look very far to find a lake.
According to satellite data, there are roughly 100 million lakes larger than one hectare (2.47 acres) to be found globally. The largest lakes, which rival the size of entire nations, are more of a rarity.
One might expect the world’s largest lakes to be very alike, but from depth to saline content, their properties can be quite different. As well, the ranking of the world’s largest lakes is far from static, as human activity can turn a massive body of water into a desert within a single generation.
Today’s graphic – created using the fantastic online tool, Slap It On A Map! – uses the Great Lakes region as a point of comparison for the largest 25 lakes, by area. This is particularly useful in comparing the scale of lakes that are located in disparate parts of the globe.
The Greatest Lakes
The largest lake in the world by a long shot is the Caspian Sea – a name that hints at a past when it was contiguous with the ocean around 11 million years ago. This massive saline lake, which is nearly the same size as Japan, borders five countries: Kazakhstan, Russia, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, and Iran. An estimated 48 billion barrels of oil lay beneath the surface of the basin.
The five Great Lakes, which run along the Canada–U.S. border, form one of the largest collections of fresh water on Earth. This interconnected series of lakes represents around 20% of the world’s fresh water and the region supports over 100 million people, roughly equal to one-third of the Canada–U.S. population.
Amazingly, a single lake holds as much fresh water as all the Great Lakes combined – Lake Baikal. This rift lake in Siberia has a maximum depth of 5,371ft (1,637m). For comparison, the largest of the Great Lakes (Lake Superior) is only 25% as deep, with a maximum depth of 1,333ft (406m). Lake Baikal is unique in a number of other ways too. It is the world’s oldest, coldest lake, and around 80% of its animal species are endemic (not found anywhere else).
Here’s a full run-down of the top 25 lakes by area:
| Rank | Lake Name | Surface Area | Type | Countries on shoreline |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Caspian Sea | 143,000 sq mi (371,000km²) | Saline | Kazakhstan Russia Turkmenistan Azerbaijan Iran |
| 2 | Superior | 31,700 sq mi (82,100km²) | Freshwater | Canada U.S. |
| 3 | Victoria | 26,590 sq mi (68,870km²) | Freshwater | Uganda Kenya Tanzania |
| 4 | Huron | 23,000 sq mi (59,600km²) | Freshwater | Canada U.S. |
| 5 | Michigan | 22,000 sq mi (58,000km²) | Freshwater | U.S. |
| 6 | Tanganyika | 12,600 sq mi (32,600km²) | Freshwater | Burundi Tanzania Zambia D.R.C. |
| 7 | Baikal | 12,200 sq mi (31,500km²) | Freshwater | Russia |
| 8 | Great Bear Lake | 12,000 sq mi (31,000km²) | Freshwater | Canada |
| 9 | Malawi | 11,400 sq mi (29,500km²) | Freshwater | Malawi Mozambique Tanzania |
| 10 | Great Slave Lake | 10,000 sq mi (27,000km²) | Freshwater | Canada |
| 11 | Erie | 9,900 sq mi (25,700km²) | Freshwater | Canada U.S. |
| 12 | Winnipeg | 9,465 sq mi (24,514km²) | Freshwater | Canada |
| 13 | Ontario | 7,320 sq mi (18,960km²) | Freshwater | Canada U.S. |
| 14 | Ladoga | 7,000 sq mi (18,130km²) | Freshwater | Russia |
| 15 | Balkhash | 6,300 sq mi (16,400km²) | Saline | Kazakhstan |
| 16 | Vostok | 4,800 sq mi (12,500km²) | Freshwater | Antarctica |
| 17 | Onega | 3,700 sq mi (9,700km²) | Freshwater | Russia |
| 18 | Titicaca | 3,232 sq mi (8,372km²) | Freshwater | Bolivia Peru |
| 19 | Nicaragua | 3,191 sq mi (8,264km²) | Freshwater | Nicaragua |
| 20 | Athabasca | 3,030 sq mi (7,850km²) | Freshwater | Canada |
| 21 | Taymyr | 2,700 sq mi (6,990km²) | Freshwater | Russia |
| 22 | Turkana | 2,473 sq mi (6,405km²) | Saline | Kenya Ethiopia |
| 23 | Reindeer Lake | 2,440 sq mi (6,330km²) | Freshwater | Canada |
| 24 | Issyk-Kul | 2,400 sq mi (6,200km²) | Saline | Kyrgyzstan |
| 25 | Urmia | 2,317 sq mi (6,001km²) | Saline | Iran |
Shrinking out of the rankings
Not far from the world’s largest lake, straddling the border between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, lay the sand dunes of the Aralkum Desert. In the not so distant past, this harsh environment was actually the bed of one of the largest lakes in the world – the Aral Sea.
For reasons both climatic and anthropogenic, the Aral Sea began receding in the 1960s. This dramatic change in surface area took the Aral Sea from the fourth largest lake on Earth to not even ranking in the top 50. Researchers note that the size of the lake has fluctuated a lot over history, but through the lens of modern history these recent changes happened rapidly, leaving local economies devastated and former shoreside towns landlocked.
Lake Chad, in Saharan Africa, and Lake Urmia, in Iran, both face similar challenges, shrinking dramatically in recent decades.
How we work to reverse damage and avoid ecosystem collapse in vulnerable lakes will have a big influence on how the top 25 list may look in future years.
Source: Visual Capitalist
Visual Capitalist uses powerful visual content to help investors and business professionals understand the world. Focusing on topics such as markets, technology, energy, and the global economy, Visual Capitalist is currently one of the fastest growing online publishers in North America.
