How much water is in that lake?
Lake volumes are wildly out of proportion to their surface areas — Baikal holds more than all the Great Lakes combined.
3.3% of a large UK reservoir
1,000,000 m³ is bigger than 1 of the 8 references on this page.
Reference figures are measurements and are rounded; the unit conversion behind them is exact.
| Reference | Size | Yours ÷ theirs | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Olympic swimming pool | 2,500 m³ | 400× | |
| large UK reservoir | 30,000,000 m³ | 1/30 | Kielder Water holds 200 million m³ |
| Sydney Harbour | 500,000,000 m³ | 1/500 | |
| Loch Ness | 7,450,000,000 m³ | 1/7,450 | |
| Dead Sea | 114,000,000,000 m³ | 1/114,000 | |
| Lake Erie | 484,000,000,000 m³ | 1/484,000 | |
| Lake Baikal | 23,600,000,000,000 m³ | 1/23,600,000 | A fifth of all surface fresh water |
| all the oceans | 1.33×10¹⁸ m³ | 1/1,335,000,000,000 |
Worth knowing
- Lake Baikal holds 23 600 km³ — about 20% of the world’s unfrozen surface fresh water, in a lake with less area than Belgium.
- Loch Ness holds more water than every lake in England and Wales combined, because it is 230 m deep.
Frequently asked
Which lake holds the most water?
Lake Baikal, at about 23 600 km³. Lake Superior has three times the surface area but a third of the volume, because Baikal is over 1 600 m deep.
How much water is on Earth?
About 1.386 billion km³, of which 97% is salt water and around 2% is locked in ice. Accessible surface fresh water is well under 0.01%.