Talk:List of countries by percentage of water area

Accuracy

This can't be right. Countries like Indonesia and Philippines should be up there in the ranking with all that water between the islands, correct? If this article deals only with enclosed water bodies then British Indian Ocean Territory should have much less than 99% water. CIA Factbook seems to be wrong here. Aurora sword (talk) 12:55, 28 October 2008 (UTC)

• CIA is definitely wrong here. The figure given for Russia is 79,400 sq km, but if you calculate the sum of surface areas of around 20 Russia's major lakes (see List of lakes in Russia) you'll get the figure of around 76,000 sq km. If you'll add several more lakes given in the analoguous list of Russian Wikipedia, you'll get the figure about 80,000 sq km. CIA is wrong! And what about many many thousands of minor lakes? What about the surfaces of many thousands of rivers and channels? What about reservoires (if counted as lakes some of them will be in top 10 of Russia's lakes)? What about Russian part of Caspian sea which is a lake actually? Seems CIA didn't count all that. But they apparently did count such things for example for Australia, which has the figure nearly like Russia - 68,920 sq km. Australia has only few major lakes and is full of deserts! The % figure for Russia is definitely not 0.47%. I'll put the 13% figure from Russia article with the source [1] (Russian Federal State Statistics Service). May be it is too much, but definitely closer to reality than 0.47%. Canada with 8.93% has comparable geographical position, climate and ice age hydrogeological inheritance. % figures for Canada and Russia should be alike, and 13% is closer to 8.93% than 0.47% is. I also think that % figures for US and China look reliable, but the figure for Brazil seems wrong. Greyhood (talk) 16:29, 10 November 2008 (UTC)
  • Well, sorry, I have to revert my edit as I have noticed that 13% figure includes swamps. Still the CIA is wrong. 2,219,776 sq km (13% of Russian territory) minus approximately 2,000,000 sq km of swamps (see Russian counterpart for Geography of Russia article) is 219,776 sq km. Russian geography article gives a figure of approximately 350,000 sq km for all lakes and reservoirs in Russia excluding Russian part of the Caspian sea (which is another 70,000 sq km). Add here the river and channel surfaces and you'll get the right figure (about 500,000 sq km likely). Perhaps less than Canada and United States, but definitely more than any other country. Hope somebody will find the solid source to confirm my calculations. CIA are lazy profanes, anyway... Greyhood (talk) 17:01, 10 November 2008 (UTC)

And British Indian Ocean Territory is listed to have total area of 54 400 km², but in its own article it is listed as Total area 60 km² and 99.89% water of THAT? 85.217.22.170 (talk) 18:32, 12 December 2010 (UTC)

Moreof, what exactly is the point of taking these ridiculous numbers as total area for British Indian Ocean Territory, U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and Bahamas? None of them matches the areas in their respective articles. To my understanding it should be the Total area listed in every country's or region's infobox, and then count the Water area from that. 85.217.22.170 (talk) 18:44, 12 December 2010 (UTC)

New Discussion

A discussion has been started at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Countries/Lists of countries which could affect the inclusion criteria and title of this and other lists of countries. Editors are invited to participate. Pfainuk talk 12:17, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

New Zealand

Isn't listed - and I can confirm it isn't a desert. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.160.123.159 (talk) 16:58, 28 October 2010 (UTC)

Yes, I just noticed this too. The CIA Factbook gets us nowhere. From the numbers given by NZ's Ministry for the Environment, the percentage for lakes, rivers, etc is (357526 + 81936) / (26821559 - 92499 - 26033 - 19216) = 1.65%; if estuaries, mangroves, and "herbaceous saline vegetation" are included, the percentage goes up to (357526 + 92499 + 81936 + 26033 + 19216) / 26821559 = 2.15%. From the lead section, I gather that the former is what's wanted here. I'll add it. --Avenue (talk) 14:08, 25 April 2011 (UTC)

Dubious

The Factbook editors seem to have screwed up at BIOT and USVI, because they apparently included the water area as the area of all territorial waters etc. (Either that or each country looks like a circular, which it doesn't.) This, however, contradicts the criteria at the top. --Joy [shallot] (talk) 17:23, 13 March 2011 (UTC)

Maybe it would be best to simply have two lists, since "water area" is ambiguous anyway, territorial waters sound as a legitimate part of "water area" of a country in general. List of countries by inland water area and List of counties by total water area? (The word "percentage" is also needless.) --Joy [shallot] (talk) 13:49, 14 March 2011 (UTC)

No, that is just what territorial waters are not. They are not included in the "Total area" in each country's or region's own either. I'll just take an example from above. This list has the total area of British Indian Ocean Territory as 54.400 km² and water % as 99.89. Well, how come its own article has total area as 60 km² and water % is the same 99.89. If I would believe the figures from British Indian Ocean Territory, then the land area would be only 0.066 km².

The area what is listed as total area in List of countries and outlying territories by total area, should be in List of countries by percentage of water area also. But what actually is considered the "Total area"? Is there a definition somewhere? 85.217.39.33 (talk) 17:57, 9 July 2011 (UTC)

That's what I'm saying, this list is broken because when you try to verify it using internal links, it turns out the content there contradicts it. So we should have either one or two consistent lists, not this hodgepodge. --Joy [shallot] (talk) 10:42, 10 July 2011 (UTC)