What is the largest lake in the world?

By surface area the Caspian Sea is the largest at about 371,000 km². It is an enclosed inland body of salt water and is conventionally counted as a lake, though it is sometimes called a sea because of its size and salinity.

Which lake is the deepest?

Lake Baikal in Russia is the deepest at about 1,642 m, and it holds roughly a fifth of the world's unfrozen fresh surface water. Lake Tanganyika in Africa is second at about 1,470 m.

Why does surface area differ from depth ranking?

Surface area measures how wide a lake spreads, while depth measures how far down it goes. Lake Superior is huge in area but only 406 m deep, whereas Baikal is smaller in area yet far deeper. The two rankings are largely independent.

Are the Great Lakes included?

Yes. Superior, Huron, Michigan, Erie and Ontario all appear in the table. Together they form the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth by total area, shared between Canada and the United States.

Are these figures exact?

No. Lake areas vary seasonally with rainfall, inflow and evaporation, and sources differ on exact values. The figures here are typical published values intended for reference and comparison, not survey-grade measurements.

World Lakes Area Reference

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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.

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 largest, has shrunk drastically and is omitted here.
Lake Vostok in Antarctica is subglacial, sealed beneath roughly 4 km of ice.
Figures are approximate and rounded; different geographic sources report slightly different values.