Geography & Places

List of Largest Lakes in the World by Area

The ten largest lakes on Earth ranked by surface area, from the vast saline Caspian Sea to the freshwater giants of North America and Africa.

10 itemsUpdated Apr 20, 2026

The Caspian Sea, the largest lake on Earth, is not a sea at all — at least not legally. It is technically a lake because it is landlocked, but it is saline, vast enough to have its own weather systems, and surrounded by five countries that have spent decades arguing over how to classify it for the purposes of mineral rights. Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Iran, and Azerbaijan all share its shores, and the Caspian holds an estimated 48 billion barrels of oil beneath its bed. Remove the Caspian and the list tilts heavily towards two regions. North America's Great Lakes — Superior, Huron, and Michigan — together hold about 21 percent of the world's surface freshwater. East Africa's Rift Valley lakes — Victoria, Tanganyika, and Malawi — were formed by the same tectonic activity that is slowly splitting Africa in two, and they host the densest concentration of endemic fish species on Earth. Lake Superior is the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface area. Lake Baikal, though only the seventh on this list, is by far the deepest and holds 20 percent of all the unfrozen freshwater on the planet in a single basin. Africa's Lake Chad, once the sixth-largest lake on Earth in the 1960s, has since shrunk to less than 10 percent of its former size — a sobering reminder that these rankings are not permanent. Climate change, irrigation withdrawals, and dam construction are reshaping large lakes at an unprecedented pace. The Aral Sea in Central Asia — formerly the fourth-largest lake on Earth — has all but disappeared within living memory.

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#	Name	Type	Area km2	Continent
1	Caspian Sea Central Asia The largest lake on Earth at 371,000 square kilometres. Technically a saline lake, bordered by Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Iran, and Azerbaijan.	saline	371,000	Asia/Europe
2	Lake Superior USA / Canada The largest freshwater lake in the world by surface area at 82,100 square kilometres, shared between Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Ontario.	freshwater	82,100	North America
3	Lake Victoria Uganda / Kenya / Tanzania Africa's largest lake at 68,870 square kilometres, the source of the White Nile and home to hundreds of endemic cichlid fish species.	freshwater	68,870	Africa
4	Lake Huron USA / Canada The second-largest Great Lake at 59,600 square kilometres, containing Manitoulin Island, the largest lake island in the world.	freshwater	59,600	North America
5	Lake Michigan United States At 58,000 square kilometres, Lake Michigan is the only Great Lake located entirely within the United States.	freshwater	58,000	North America
6	Lake Tanganyika Tanzania / DRC / Burundi / Zambia The world's longest freshwater lake at 32,900 square kilometres and the second-deepest, in East Africa's Great Rift Valley.	freshwater	32,900	Africa
7	Lake Baikal Russia At 31,500 square kilometres, Baikal is the deepest lake in the world (1,642 m) and contains roughly 20 percent of Earth's unfrozen surface freshwater.	freshwater	31,500	Asia
8	Great Bear Lake Canada The largest lake entirely within Canada at 31,000 square kilometres, located in the Northwest Territories just south of the Arctic Circle.	freshwater	31,000	North America
9	Lake Malawi Malawi / Mozambique / Tanzania A Rift Valley lake of 29,500 square kilometres, famous for the richest diversity of fish species of any lake in the world.	freshwater	29,500	Africa
10	Great Slave Lake Canada The deepest lake in North America at 614 metres, covering 28,568 square kilometres in the Northwest Territories.	freshwater	28,568	North America

This list is compiled from verified public records and reference sources. Last verified: April 20, 2026.

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