Quick Facts

The Lake Winnipeg watershed is the second largest watershed in Canada and includes parts of four provinces and four U.S. States.

The Lake Winnipeg drainage basin is nearly 1,000,000 km² in size and is home to 5 million people.

Several major rivers flow into Lake Winnipeg including the Red, Winnipeg, and Saskatchewan rivers.

These three rivers make up on average more than 60% of the total river flow into Lake Winnipeg.

Some of the other rivers that flow into Lake Winnipeg include the Poplar, Berens, Pigeon, Manigotagan, Dauphin, Fisher, and Icelandic rivers.

Only one river flows out of Lake Winnipeg, the Nelson River.

Lake Winnipeg, the last remains of glacial Lake Agassiz, lies on the boundary between the low-relief Interior Plains and the southwestern Canadian Shield.

The surface area of Lake Winnipeg is about 23,750 km². The lake covers about 3.7 % of the surface area of the Province of Manitoba.

Lake Winnipeg is about 436 km in length, about the same distance as a drive to Brandon from Winnipeg...and back!

At its widest point, Lake Winnipeg is about 111 km across.

On average, the lake is about 12 metres deep but at a point off the north east shore of Black Island, Lake Winnipeg reaches its maximum depth of about 36 metres.

With its many bays, harbours, and points, the shoreline of Lake Winnipeg is about 1,750 km long.

The volume of Lake Winnipeg is 284 cubic kilometres (1 km wide by 1 km high by 1 km long), equivalent to more that 6 billion times the volume of a standard 14 by 28 foot backyard pool.

Beach safety staff estimate that 395,100 people visited Grand Beach during the summer of 2002 while 87,800 made the trip to Winnipeg Beach.

Over 460,000 people visited Grand Beach Provincial Park during the summer of 2002. In 2003, that number increased to over 609,000 people, up by 32 %!

Seven Manitoba Provincial Parks are located on the south basin of Lake Winnipeg including Hecla/Grindstone, Beaver Creek, Camp Morton, Winnipeg Beach, Elk Island, and Grand Beach.

In 2001 - 2002, 1,073 licensed fishers and their helpers were employed in the commercial fishery on Lake Winnipeg.

During the 2002 - 2003 season, 3,212,700 kg (round weight) of pickerel were caught by commercial fishers on Lake Winnipeg. Harvest of whitefish and sauger were also high at 1,597,700 and 739,000 kg (round weight), respectively.

In 2001 - 2002, the total value of commercial fish production of Lake Winnipeg was $20,380,350.

Lake Winnipeg is a relatively new home to an invasive fish species, Rainbow smelt (Osmerus mordax). Rainbow smelt are not native to Manitoba.

Fun Lake Winnipeg Facts

Lake Winnipeg helped to host the Pan Am Games in 1999 and the World Boardsailing Championships in 1994.

Lake Winnipeg was used as a set for the movie K19 starring Harrison Ford.