The world’s largest lakes at a glance
This reference ranks the 30 largest lakes on Earth by surface area, from the vast Caspian Sea down to mid-sized basins like Lake Nipigon. For each lake it shows the approximate surface area in square kilometres, the maximum depth in metres, and the countries the lake borders. Use the filter to jump straight to a single lake, a country, or an entire continent.
How it works
Lakes are ranked by surface area, the two-dimensional footprint of the water body measured in km². This is independent of depth: a shallow, sprawling lake such as Lake Winnipeg can outrank a deep but narrow one. The Caspian Sea tops the list because, although salty and sea-like, it is fully enclosed by land and so qualifies as the world’s largest lake.
Depth is reported as the maximum sounded depth — the single deepest point — not an average. That is why Lake Baikal (1,642 m) and Lake Tanganyika (1,470 m) dominate the depth picture even though neither is the widest. The two measurements answer different questions: area is about extent, depth is about volume per unit area.
Area versus depth: different questions
The two most striking rankings diverge sharply:
| Lake | Approx area (km²) | Max depth (m) | Area rank | Depth rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Caspian Sea | ~371,000 | ~1,025 | 1st | — |
| Superior | ~82,100 | ~406 | 2nd | deep but not top 5 |
| Baikal | ~31,500 | ~1,642 | smaller | 1st (deepest) |
| Tanganyika | ~32,900 | ~1,470 | moderate | 2nd |
| Malawi / Nyasa | ~29,600 | ~706 | moderate | 3rd |
Lake Superior holds the most water of the Great Lakes by volume despite Lake Huron having a slightly larger surface area, because Superior’s basin is deeper. Baikal — despite ranking much lower by area — holds roughly 20% of all unfrozen fresh surface water on Earth because of its extraordinary depth.
Geographic spread
- Africa has three lakes in the top 10 by area (Victoria, Tanganyika, Malawi), all part of the East African Rift system.
- North America hosts the five Great Lakes, four of which rank in the global top 15.
- Asia is dominated by the Caspian Sea and Lake Baikal.
- South America’s Lake Titicaca is notable less for area than for altitude (3,812 m), making it the world’s highest large navigable lake.
Notes and caveats
- The Caspian Sea is included as the largest enclosed inland water body; some classifications treat it separately as a sea.
- Areas change with the seasons and with long-term climate. The Aral Sea, once among the world’s largest lakes, has shrunk to a fraction of its former size due to irrigation diversion and is omitted here.
- Lake Vostok in Antarctica is subglacial, sealed beneath roughly 4 km of ice; its area is estimated from radar surveys and is not a surface lake.
- Figures are approximate and rounded; different geographic sources report slightly different values depending on survey year and seasonal water level.