The 10 biggest lakes on Earth ranked by surface area, from the vast Caspian Sea to Canada's Great Slave Lake.
Quick answer: 1. Caspian Sea, 2. Lake Superior, 3. Lake Victoria, 4. Lake Huron, 5. Lake Michigan, 6. Lake Tanganyika, 7. Lake Baikal, 8. Great Bear Lake, 9. Lake Malawi (Nyasa), 10. Great Slave Lake.
Lakes are ranked here by surface area — the single most common way geographers size them — spanning inland seas, the North American Great Lakes, Africa's Rift Valley giants, and the deep lakes of Russia and Canada. It's a quick reference for anyone comparing the world's largest bodies of standing water. The list mixes the familiar (Lake Superior, Lake Victoria) with the surprising: the Caspian Sea, though named a sea, is classified as a lake by nearly every authority and dwarfs everything else. Alongside area, each entry carries its maximum depth, volume, and bordering countries so you can see how a wide, shallow lake stacks up against a narrow, deep one.
The world's largest inland body of water by a huge margin, classified as a lake by nearly all sources despite its name. Its endorheic saltwater basin covers 371,000 km², more than four times the size of any freshwater lake.
The largest freshwater lake in the world by surface area and the biggest of North America's Great Lakes. It covers 82,100 km² along the Canada-United States border.
Africa's largest lake and the world's largest tropical lake, and the source of the White Nile. Its cited reference figure of 59,947 km² edges out Lake Huron for third place.
The second-largest Great Lake by area at 59,570 km², just behind Lake Victoria. It connects to Lake Michigan at the Straits of Mackinac.
The only Great Lake lying entirely within the United States, covering 57,800 km². Hydrologically it forms a single lake with Huron, but the two are conventionally counted separately.
The world's longest freshwater lake and its second-deepest, covering 32,900 km² across four countries. It holds more water by volume than any lake except Baikal.
The deepest and oldest lake on Earth and the largest freshwater lake by volume, holding roughly 22-23% of the world's unfrozen surface fresh water. Its 31,722 km² surface ranks it seventh by area.
The largest lake entirely within Canada and the largest lake wholly inside a single country's borders, at 31,153 km². It sits just south of the Arctic Circle.
Africa's third-largest and second-deepest lake at 29,600 km². It is home to more fish species than any other lake in the world.
The deepest lake in North America, reaching 614 m, and the tenth-largest lake by area at 27,200 km². It lies in Canada's Northwest Territories.
| # | Name | Max depth (m) | Volume (km³) | Bordering countries |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Caspian Sea | 1025 | 78200 | Kazakhstan, Russia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Turkmenistan |
| 2 | Lake Superior | 406 | 12070 | Canada, United States |
| 3 | Lake Victoria | 81 | 2424 | Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya |
| 4 | Lake Huron | 229 | 3520 | Canada, United States |
| 5 | Lake Michigan | 282 | 4930 | United States |
| 6 | Lake Tanganyika | 1470 | 18750 | Tanzania, DR Congo, Burundi, Zambia |
| 7 | Lake Baikal | 1642 | 23610 | Russia |
| 8 | Great Bear Lake | 446 | 2234 | Canada |
| 9 | Lake Malawi (Nyasa) | 706 | 8640 | Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania |
| 10 | Great Slave Lake | 614 | 1115 | Canada |
Lakes are ranked by surface area in square kilometers, highest first (rank 1 = largest). Figures are drawn from Wikipedia's "List of lakes by area" (which compiles government and UN references) and each lake's own reference sources, cross-checked against NASA and Britannica for the Caspian Sea. Inclusion criteria: standing inland bodies of water conventionally classified as lakes. The Caspian Sea is included because it is classified as the world's largest lake by nearly all sources despite its name; its 371,000 km² figure excludes the Garabogazköl lagoon. Lake Michigan and Lake Huron are counted separately per convention even though they are hydrologically one lake. Where area figures are close (Victoria vs. Huron), each lake's own cited reference figure was used to order them.
Despite its name, the Caspian Sea is classified as a lake by nearly all sources — it is an endorheic (terminal) saltwater basin with no outlet to the ocean, making it the world's largest inland body of water and the largest lake by area.
Lake Superior is the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface area, at 82,100 km². By volume, however, the deepest lake — Lake Baikal — holds the most fresh water.
Hydrologically, Lake Michigan and Lake Huron are a single lake connected at the Straits of Mackinac and sit at the same water level, but by long-standing convention they are counted as two separate lakes, so they appear separately here.
They are ranked strictly by surface area in square kilometers, largest first. Where two lakes are close in area, such as Lake Victoria and Lake Huron, each lake's own cited reference figure was used to order them.