The Largest Seas and Gulfs in the World

The world's seas and gulfs, by area.

The world's largest seas and gulfs by area, from the Mediterranean and Caribbean to the South China Sea and the Bering Sea.

#	Place	Area (sq mi)
1	Coral Sea The South Pacific sea that holds the Great Barrier Reef	1,849,815 sq mi 4,791,000 km²
2	Arabian Sea The monsoon-driven sea linking Arabia, Africa, and India	1,491,126 sq mi 3,862,000 km²
3	South China Sea Asia's contested crossroads of shipping and reefs	1,422,786 sq mi 3,685,000 km²
4	Caribbean Sea The tropical sea of pirates, coral, and a thousand islands	1,063,325 sq mi 2,754,000 km²
5	Mediterranean Sea The cradle sea of Western civilization, locked between three continents	965,255 sq mi 2,500,000 km²
6	Bering Sea The cold, fish-rich gateway between Asia and the Americas	889,579 sq mi 2,304,000 km²
7	Tasman Sea The stormy stretch of ocean dividing Australia and New Zealand	888,035 sq mi 2,300,000 km²
8	Bay of Bengal The world's largest bay and cradle of the deadliest cyclones	839,000 sq mi 2,173,000 km²
9	Gulf of Mexico North America's great basin of oil, hurricanes, and shrimp	617,763 sq mi 1,600,000 km²
10	Sea of Japan A deep marginal sea cradled between Asia and the Japanese archipelago	377,608 sq mi 978,000 km²
11	North Sea Europe's stormy shelf sea of fishermen and oil rigs	220,078 sq mi 570,000 km²
12	Red Sea A young ocean in the making, splitting Africa from Arabia	169,113 sq mi 438,000 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.