exclusive economic zone(EEZ) map of the world

States Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) extends no more than 200 nautical miles from the territorial sea baseline and is adjacent to the 12 nautical mile territorial sea. The Part V Article 55 of the UN Convention defines the EEZ as:

“The exclusive economic zone is an area beyond and adjacent to the territorial sea, subject to the specific legal regime established in this Part, under which the rights and jurisdiction of the coastal State and the rights and freedoms of other States are governed by the relevant provisions of this Convention.”

To provide an answer to these questions, in 1982 the United Nation Convention on the Law of the Sea defined a set of rules on how to divide the marine regions. A country has control over both the seafloor as well as ships travelling at the sea surface in an area that extends up to 12 nautical miles (22.2 km) from its coastline. This is called a country’s territorial sea and its outline is similar to the borders that exist on land.

Extending beyond this point and reaching up to 200 nautical miles (370.4 km) from a country’s coast lies its Exclusive Economic Zone. Within this region, a country owns the natural resources at the seafloor but has no say on what happens at the surface. Any ships in an Exclusive Economic Zone are essentially in international waters. This map of the week features the Exclusive Economic Zones of EU Countries for which a regulatory text exists in UN’s Convention on the Law of the Sea1. Note that such a text does not exist for the EEZ of some EU countries (e.g. UK, Italy, and Greece) and these are currently not shown on the map.

The idea of allotting nations EEZs to give them more control of maritime affairs outside territorial limits gained acceptance in the late 20th century. Initially, a country’s sovereign territorial waters extended 3 nmi or 5.6 km (range of cannon shot) beyond the shore. In modern times, a country’s sovereign territorial waters extend to 12 nmi (22 km) beyond the shore. One of the first assertions of exclusive jurisdiction beyond the traditional territorial seas was made by the United States in the Truman Proclamation of 28 September 1945. However, it was Chile and Peru respectively that first claimed maritime zones of 200 nautical miles with the Presidential Declaration Concerning Continental Shelf of 23 June 1947 and Presidential Decree No. 781 of 1 August 1947.

The Exclusive Economic Zone: What It Is
The exclusive economic zone (EEZ) is an area where sovereign states have jurisdiction over resources. The EEZ differs from territorial waters in two respects. First, the jurisdiction of the coastal state within the EEZ only pertains to natural resources (fish, offshore oil, and gas), while the coastal state has full jurisdiction within its territorial sea. Second, the maximum width of the territorial sea is 12 nautical miles from baselines, while the maximum width of the EEZ is 200 nautical miles (370 km or 230 English miles). Baselines are lines drawn from headland to headland, enclosing fiords and bays, the maximum length of a straight base line being 24 nautical miles. Nevertheless, the jurisdiction over sedentary and underground resources is wider than this when the continental shelf reaches beyond 200 nautical miles. The rules delimiting the continental shelf are rather technical and are set out in Article 76 of the UN Law of the Sea Convention (see UN website, listed below). Earlier the 200-m depth contour was often taken as the limit of the continental shelf. Sedentary living resources are defined in the Law of the Sea Convention as fixed to the bottom or unable to move unless in contact with the ocean bottom.

Within its EEZ, a coastal state can regulate the use of resources as it finds in its best interest and impose penalties on those who do not abide by these regulations. The rules pertaining to the EEZ are a part of the UN Law of the Sea Convention.

In the numerous cases where countries share the same continental shelf or the distance between their shores is less than 400 nautical miles, boundaries between states have to be settled by negotiation. The Convention does not prescribe how this is to be done. In many, but by no means all cases, the so-called equidistance principle has been followed, implying that the boundary is drawn at equal distance between the adjacent countries. There are many cases of competing claims that still have not been resolved, particularly such as those that involve disputed sovereignty over uninhabited islands.

countries EEZ ranking (source: Wikipedia)

Rank	Country	EEZ km2	Shelf km2	EEZ+TIA km2
1	France	11,691,000	730,745	12,366,417
2	United States	11,351,000	2,193,526	21,814,306
3	Australia	8,505,348	2,194,008	16,197,464
4	Russia	7,566,673	3,817,843	24,664,915
5	United Kingdom	6,805,586	872,891	7,048,486
6	Indonesia	6,159,032	2,039,381	8,063,601
7	Canada	5,599,077	2,644,795	15,607,077
8	Japan	4,479,388	214,976	4,857,318
9	New Zealand	4,420,565	272,898	4,688,285
10	Brazil	3,830,955	774,563	12,345,832
11	Chile	3,681,989	252,947	4,431,381
12	Kiribati	3,441,810	7,523	3,442,536
13	Mexico	3,269,386	419,102	5,141,968
14	Federated States of Micronesia	2,996,419	19,403	2,997,121
15	Denmark	2,551,238	495,657	4,761,811
16	Papua New Guinea	2,402,288	191,256	2,865,128
17	Norway	2,385,178	434,020	2,770,404
18	India	2,305,143	402,996	5,592,406
19	Marshall Islands	1,990,530	18,411	1,990,711
–	Cook Islands	1,960,027	1,213	1,960,267
20	Portugal	1,727,408	28,000	1,819,498
21	Philippines	1,590,780	272,921	1,890,780
22	Solomon Islands	1,589,477	36,282	1,618,373
23	South Africa	1,535,538	156,337	2,756,575
24	Seychelles	1,336,559	39,063	1,337,014
25	Mauritius	1,284,997	29,061	1,287,037
26	Fiji	1,282,978	47,705	1,301,250
27	Madagascar	1,225,259	101,505	1,812,300
28	Argentina	1,159,063	856,346	3,939,463
29	Ecuador	1,077,231	41,034	1,333,600
30	Spain	1,039,233	77,920	1,545,225
31	Maldives	923,322	34,538	923,622
32	Peru	906,454	82,000	2,191,670
33	China	877,019	231,340	10,473,980
34	Somalia	825,052	55,895	1,462,709
35	Colombia	808,158	53,691	1,949,906
36	Cape Verde	800,561	5,591	804,594
37	Iceland	751,345	108,015	854,345
38	Tuvalu	749,790	3,575	749,816
39	Vanuatu	663,251	11,483	675,440
40	Tonga	659,558	8,517	660,305
41	Bahamas	654,715	106,323	668,658
42	Palau	603,978	2,837	604,437
43	Mozambique	578,986	94,212	1,380,576
44	Morocco	575,230	115,157	1,287,780
45	Costa Rica	574,725	19,585	625,825
46	Namibia	564,748	86,698	1,388,864
47	Yemen	552,669	59,229	1,080,637
48	Italy	541,915	116,834	843,251
49	Oman	533,180	59,071	842,680
50	Myanmar	532,775	220,332	1,209,353
51	Sri Lanka	532,619	32,453	598,229
52	Angola	518,433	48,092	1,765,133
53	Greece*	505,572	81,451	637,529
54	South Korea	475,469	342,522	575,469
55	Venezuela	471,507	98,500	1,387,950
56	Turkey*	462,000	56,093	1,045,216
57	Vietnam	417,663	365,198	748,875
58	Ireland	410,310	139,935	480,583
59	Libya	351,589	64,763	2,111,129
60	Cuba	350,751	61,525	460,637
61	Panama	335,646	53,404	411,163
62	Malaysia	334,671	323,412	665,474
–	Niue	316,584	284	316,844
63	Nauru	308,480	41	308,501
64	Equatorial Guinea	303,509	7,820	331,560
65	Thailand	299,397	230,063	812,517
66	Pakistan	290,000	51,383	1,117,911
67	Egypt	263,451	61,591	1,265,451
68	Jamaica	258,137	9,802	269,128
69	Dominican Republic	255,898	10,738	304,569
70	Liberia	249,734	17,715	361,103
71	Honduras	249,542	68,718	362,034
72	Tanzania	241,888	25,611	1,186,975
73	Ghana	235,349	22,502	473,888
74	Saudi Arabia	228,633	107,249	2,378,323
75	Nigeria	217,313	42,285	1,141,081
76	Sierra Leone	215,611	28,625	287,351
77	Gabon	202,790	35,020	470,458
78	Barbados	186,898	426	187,328
79	Côte d’Ivoire	176,254	10,175	498,717
80	Iran	168,718	118,693	1,797,468
81	Mauritania	165,338	31,662	1,190,858
82	Comoros	163,752	1,526	165,987
83	Sweden	160,885	154,604	602,255
84	Senegal	158,861	23,092	355,583
85	Netherlands	154,011	77,246	192,345
86	Ukraine	147,318	79,142	750,818
87	Uruguay	142,166	75,327	318,381
88	Guyana	137,765	50,578	352,734
89	São Tomé and Príncipe	131,397	1,902	132,361
90	Samoa	127,950	2,087	130,781
91	Suriname	127,772	53,631	291,592
92	Haiti	126,760	6,683	154,510
93	Algeria	126,353	9,985	2,508,094
94	Nicaragua	123,881	70,874	254,254
95	Guinea-Bissau	123,725	39,339	159,850
96	Bangladesh	118,813	66,438	230,390
97	Kenya	116,942	11,073	697,309
98	Guatemala	114,170	14,422	223,059
99	North Korea	113,888	50,337	234,428
100	Antigua and Barbuda	110,089	4,128	110,531
101	Tunisia	101,857	67,126	265,467
102	Cyprus*	98,707	4,042	107,958
103	El Salvador	90,962	16,852	112,003
104	Finland[note 13]	87,171	85,109	425,590
105	Republic of China(Taiwan)	83,231	43,016	119,419
106	Eritrea	77,728	61,817	195,328
107	Trinidad and Tobago	74,199	25,284	79,329
108	East Timor	70,326	25,648	85,200
109	Sudan	68,148	19,827	1,954,216
110	Cambodia	62,515	62,515	243,550
111	Guinea	59,426	44,755	305,283
112	Croatia	59,032	50,277	115,626
113	United Arab Emirates	58,218	57,474	141,818
114	Germany	57,485	57,485	414,599
115	Malta	54,823	5,301	55,139
116	Estonia	36,992	36,992	82,219
117	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	36,302	1,561	36,691
118	Belize	35,351	13,178	58,317
119	Bulgaria	34,307	10,426	145,186
120	Benin	33,221	2,721	145,843
121	Qatar	31,590	31,590	43,176
122	Republic of the Congo	31,017	7,982	373,017
123	Poland	29,797	29,797	342,482
124	Dominica	28,985	659	29,736
125	Latvia	28,452	27,772	93,011
126	Grenada	27,426	2,237	27,770
127	Israel	26,352	3,745	48,424
128	Romania	23,627	19,303	262,018
129	Gambia	23,112	5,581	34,407
130	Georgia	21,946	3,243	91,646
131	Lebanon	19,516	1,067	29,968
132	Cameroon	16,547	11,420	491,989
133	Saint Lucia	15,617	544	16,156
134	Albania	13,691	6,979	42,439
135	Togo	12,045	1,265	68,830
136	Kuwait	11,026	11,026	28,844
137	Syria	10,503	1,085	195,683
138	Bahrain	10,225	10,225	10,975
139	Brunei	10,090	8,509	15,855
140	Saint Kitts and Nevis	9,974	653	10,235
141	Montenegro	7,745	3,896	21,557
142	Djibouti	7,459	3,187	30,659
143	Lithuania	7,031	7,031	72,331
144	Belgium	3,447	3,447	33,975
145	Democratic Republic of the Congo	1,606	1,593	2,346,464
146	Singapore	1,067	1,067	1,772
147	Iraq	771	771	439,088
148	Monaco	288	2	290
149	Palestine	256	256	6,276
150	Slovenia	220	220	20,493
151	Jordan	166	59	89,508
152	Bosnia and Herzegovina	50	50	51,259
–	Kazakhstan			2,724,900
–	Mongolia			1,564,100
–	Chad			1,284,000
–	Niger			1,267,000
–	Mali			1,240,192
–	Ethiopia			1,104,300
–	Bolivia			1,098,581
–	Zambia			752,612
–	Afghanistan			652,090
–	Central African Republic			622,984
–	South Sudan			619,745
–	Botswana			582,000
–	Turkmenistan			488,100
–	Uzbekistan			447,400
–	Paraguay			406,752
–	Zimbabwe			390,757
–	Burkina Faso			274,222
–	Uganda			241,038
–	Laos			236,800
–	Belarus			207,600
–	Kyrgyzstan			199,951
–	Nepal			147,181
–	Tajikistan			143,100
–	Malawi			118,484
–	Hungary			93,028
–	Azerbaijan			86,600
–	Austria			83,871
–	Czech Republic			78,867
–	Serbia			77,474
–	Slovakia			49,035
–	Switzerland			41,284
–	Bhutan			38,394
–	Moldova			33,846
–	Lesotho			30,355
–	Armenia			29,743
–	Burundi			27,834
–	Rwanda			26,338
–	North Macedonia			25,713
–	Eswatini			17,364
–	Kosovo			10,887
–	Luxembourg			2,586
–	Andorra			468
–	Liechtenstein			160
–	San Marino			61
–	Vatican City			0.44
Total	United Nations	137,926,515	25,149,113	274,891,722
	*self-claimed