Baltic Sea

Baltic Sea region
Map of the Baltic Sea region
Location	Europe
Coordinates	58°N 20°E / 58°N 20°E / 58; 20 (slightly east of the north tip of Gotland Island)
Type	Sea
Primary inflows	Daugava, Kemijoki, Neman (Nemunas), Neva, Oder, Vistula, Lule, Narva, Torne
Primary outflows	Danish straits
Catchment area	1,641,650 km2 (633,840 sq mi)
Basin countries	Coastal: Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden Non-coastal: Belarus, Czech Republic, Norway, Slovakia, Ukraine[1]
Max. length	1,601 km (995 mi)
Max. width	193 km (120 mi)
Surface area	377,000 km2 (146,000 sq mi)
Average depth	55 m (180 ft)
Max. depth	459 m (1,506 ft)
Water volume	21,700 km3 (1.76×1010 acre⋅ft)
Residence time	25 years
Shore length1	8,000 km (5,000 mi)
Islands	Abruka, Aegna, Archipelago Sea Islands (Åland), Bornholm, Dänholm, Ertholmene, Falster, Fårö, Fehmarn, Gotland, Hailuoto, Hiddensee, Hiiumaa, Holmöarna, Kassari, Kesselaid, Kihnu, Kimitoön, Kõinastu, Kotlin, Laajasalo, Lauttasaari, Lidingö, Ljusterö, Lolland, Manilaid, Mohni, Møn, Muhu, Poel, Prangli, Osmussaar, Öland, Replot, Ruhnu, Rügen, Saaremaa, Stora Karlsö, Suomenlinna, Suur-Pakri and Väike-Pakri, Ummanz, Usedom/Uznam, Väddö, Värmdö, Vilsandi, Vormsi, Wolin
Settlements	Copenhagen, Gdańsk, Gdynia, Greifswald, Haapsalu, Helsinki, Jūrmala, Kaliningrad, Kiel, Klaipėda, Kołobrzeg, Kuressaare, Kärdla, Lübeck, Luleå, Mariehamn, Oulu, Palanga, Paldiski, Pärnu, Riga, Rostock, Saint Petersburg, Liepāja, Stockholm, Tallinn, Turku, Ventspils
References	[2]
1 Shore length is not a well-defined measure.

The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and the North and Central European Plain.^[3]

The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 10°E to 30°E longitude. It is a shelf sea and marginal sea of the Atlantic with limited water exchange between the two, making it an inland sea. The Baltic Sea drains through the Danish straits into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, Great Belt and Little Belt. It includes the Gulf of Bothnia (divided into the Bothnian Bay and the Bothnian Sea), the Gulf of Finland, the Gulf of Riga and the Bay of Gdańsk.

The "Baltic Proper" is bordered on its northern edge, at latitude 60°N, by Åland and the Gulf of Bothnia, on its northeastern edge by the Gulf of Finland, on its eastern edge by the Gulf of Riga, and in the west by the Swedish part of the southern Scandinavian Peninsula.

The Baltic Sea is connected by artificial waterways to the White Sea via the White Sea–Baltic Canal and to the German Bight of the North Sea via the Kiel Canal.