The Largest Lakes in the World

The world's largest lakes, by surface area.

The largest lakes on Earth by surface area, from the vast Caspian Sea to the African Great Lakes and the Great Lakes of North America.

#	Place	Area (sq mi)
1	Caspian Sea The world's largest enclosed body of water, a salty inland sea fed by the Volga	149,190 sq mi 386,400 km²
2	Lake Superior The largest freshwater lake on Earth by surface area	31,699 sq mi 82,100 km²
3	Lake Victoria Africa's largest lake and a source of the Nile	23,146 sq mi 59,947 km²
4	Lake Huron The Great Lake of Georgian Bay and the world's largest freshwater island	23,012 sq mi 59,600 km²
5	Lake Michigan The largest lake lying entirely within one country	22,300 sq mi 57,757 km²
6	Lake Tanganyika The world's longest freshwater lake and second deepest	12,703 sq mi 32,900 km²
7	Lake Baikal The world's deepest, oldest, and most voluminous lake	12,248 sq mi 31,722 km²
8	Great Bear Lake The largest lake lying entirely within Canada	12,096 sq mi 31,328 km²
9	Lake Malawi The African rift lake with more fish species than any other	11,429 sq mi 29,600 km²
10	Lake Ladoga The largest lake in Europe, beside Saint Petersburg	6,908 sq mi 17,891 km²
11	Lake Balkhash The Central Asian lake that is half fresh and half salt	6,332 sq mi 16,400 km²
12	Lake Eyre Australia's largest lake, a salt pan that floods only rarely	3,668 sq mi 9,500 km²

Figures are drawn from standard government and reference sources and shown in both imperial and metric units. See each entry for full details and citations. Browse all guides or open the explore map.