Largest lakes & reservoirs in by acres
There is no widely-accepted minimum surface area that defines a lake. What LakeLubbers describes as a lake, you might call a pond. Acreage of a lake (or sometimes square kilometers) is most often measured at the top surface area when the lake is at normal elevation. The surface area can be considerably smaller or larger when lake levels are lower or higher than normal. North America’s Lake Superior is the world’s largest freshwater lake by this measure.The other measure of a lake’s size is the lake’s water volume. By that measure, the world’s largest freshwater lake is Lake Baikal in Siberia.
You can find many of the world’s largest lakes (acres) on LakeLubbers in the comparison table below. Note: For some lakes, "Largest Lakes - Acres" data is unknown or does not apply, so you may see fewer lakes than the total 2151 articles we have published for lakes.
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Below are lakes within Compared by surface area in acres. This list does not represent all lakes in , only the 2151 lake articles we have published on the LakeLubbers website.
Lake name  |
Surface area in acres |
Lake description |
|---|---|---|
| Great Salt Lake, UT (Great Salt Lake Country, UT, Ogden & Northwest Region, UT, US West Region, USA, Utah) |
1,088,000 ac | Also known as America's Dead Sea Sometimes called “America’s Dead Sea,” the Great Salt Lake occupies approximately 1,700 square miles of Utah’s real estate. It is the second largest l… |
| Poyang Lake (China, East China Region) |
1,087,264 ac | Also known as Boyang, Po Yang Hu, Poyanghu Poyang Lake is China’s largest freshwater lake-also known as one of China’s five Great Lakes. This massive shallow lake is located in Jiangxi Province… |
| Lake Saimaa, Finland (Finland, Lakeland Region, Finland) |
1,082,240 ac | Also known as Saimaa Lake, Saimaa Lake District, Saimaa Lake Saimaa, in Finland’s Lakeland Region, is a lake you could spend a lifetime exploring! Nearly 1700 square miles of water and over 13,500 islands m… |
| Caniapiscau Reservoir, QC (Canada, Quebec, Canada) |
1,067,001 ac | Also known as Lake Caniapiscau “The money is not as useful as the land was before we lost it.” -Chisasibi Cree Native About 9,000 years ago, the glaciers receded on the Laurentian P… |
| Lake Guri, Venezuela (Venezuela) |
1,050,198 ac | Also known as Lago Guri, Guri Lake, Guri Reservoir Lake Guri, in the Guiana Highlands region of Bolivar Province, Venezuela, is the dream fishing destination for many a fisher folk. Guri Dam provides w… |
| Lake of the Woods, MN / Canada (Canada, Manitoba, Canada, Minnesota, Northwest Minnesota, Ontario, Canada, US Midwest Region, USA) |
950,400 ac | Spanning the border from Minnesota into the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Manitoba, Lake of the Woods is an enormous body of water over 68 miles l… |
| Lake Van (Turkey) |
928,000 ac | Also known as Van Goiu Turkey’s Lake Van is a spectacular example of a very old lake surrounded by a very old culture. Located in the far eastern area of Turkey called Anato… |
| Lake Bangweulu (Zambia) |
741,316 ac | “Where The Water Meets The Sky” is an apt description of Lake Bangweulu in northern Zambia. The lake and wetland area is one of the most interesting w… |
| Lake Khovsgol, Mongolia (Mongolia) |
682,008 ac | Also known as Lake Hovsgol Often referred to as “The Dark Blue Pearl”, Lake Khovsgol is Mongolia’s largest and deepest lake. Located in the northernmost province and surrounded… |
| Cahora Bassa (Mozambique, Tete Province Region, Mozambique) |
676,822 ac | Cahora Bassa is likely one of the best fishing destinations on the African continent. This relatively young reservoir was formed when the Cahora Bassa… |
| Tonle Sap (Cambodia) |
666,880 ac | Also known as Great Lake, Tonle Sap Lake The largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia, Tonle Sap is far more than ‘just a lake’. It is the lifeblood of northwestern Cambodia and an ecologica… |
| Wollaston Lake, SK (Canada, Saskatchewan, Canada) |
662,490 ac | Wilderness adventures draw people to Wollaston Lake in northeastern Saskatchewan. Sparsely populated, Wollaston Lake is home to copious amounts of wil… |