The Great Lakes are a group of five huge, connected freshwater lakes in east‑central North America: Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, Lake Erie, and Lake Ontario.

Quick Scoop: What Are the Great Lakes?

  • They are the largest connected area of surface freshwater on Earth by area, covering about 94,000–94,250 square miles (around 244,000 square kilometers).
  • Together they straddle the border between the United States and Canada, touching the Canadian province of Ontario and eight U.S. states: Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York.
  • The five lakes, in the classic school‑memory order, are:
    1. Lake Superior
    2. Lake Michigan
    3. Lake Huron
    4. Lake Erie
    5. Lake Ontario

Many people remember them with the acronym HOMES : Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior.

Basic Facts and Why They Matter

  • As a group, the Great Lakes hold about 20% of the world’s surface freshwater and a huge share of North America’s available fresh water.
  • Their total shoreline, including islands, is roughly 11,000 miles long, which is comparable to the length of some ocean coasts.
  • They are a major hub for shipping and transportation via the Great Lakes Waterway and the Saint Lawrence River, linking the interior of North America to the Atlantic Ocean.
  • Big cities such as Chicago, Milwaukee, Cleveland, Detroit, Toronto, and others sit on their shores and rely on them for drinking water, industry, and recreation.

How They Connect

  • Water generally flows from west to east: from Lake Superior down through Michigan–Huron, then Erie, and finally out through Lake Ontario to the Atlantic via the Saint Lawrence River.
  • A network of rivers and canals (like the Niagara River, Welland Canal, and Saint Lawrence Seaway) lets ships move between the lakes and out to the ocean.

Extra Cool Detail

Geographically, Lake Michigan and Lake Huron are connected by the narrow Straits of Mackinac and share the same water level; hydrologically they can be treated as a single giant lake sometimes called “Lake Michigan–Huron.”

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.