Largest Lakes in the World by Water Volume
Key Findings
About This Dataset
Largest Lakes in the World by Water VolumeCaspian Sea holds 78,200 cubic kilometres of water, 3.3 times the 23,610 of Baikal. Volume and area rank lakes differently: Superior covers 82,100 square kilometres against 31,722 for Baikal - 2.6 times the surface - yet holds 12,070 cubic kilometres against 23,610, because Baikal is far deeper. The 12 lakes here hold 163,141 cubic kilometres between them, and the top two account for 62% of that. Ranked by the water they actually contain rather than the ground they cover, several of the world's best-known great lakes fall well down the order.
Data Insights
Numbers, trends & sources behind this chart
Methodology & source
- Data source
- Wikipedia - List of lakes by volume
- Coverage
- 12 entities · 12 observations
- Measure
- Water volume (cubic kilometres)
- Last updated
- 10 September 2026
- Compiled by
- The ANYSTAT team, from the source above
- Values use the measure and unit named on this page. Consult the dataset description and cited source for coverage, definitions and any unit conversions. Displayed values may be rounded for readability.
- Entities are ranked highest-first on their value.
Data Sources & References
All external sources cited in this dataset
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