Largest lakes & reservoirs in Northern Illinois 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 7 articles we have published for Northern Illinois lakes.

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Search results: Sort lakes by surface acreage


Below are lakes within USA > US Midwest Region > Illinois > Northern Illinois > Compared by surface area in acres. This list does not represent all lakes in Northern Illinois, only the 7 Northern Illinois lake articles we have published on the LakeLubbers website.