Neman River - Neman By Numbers

Neman By Numbers

• The total length of the Neman is 937  kilometers (582  miles). It is the 14th longest river in Europe and the 4th longest in the Baltic Sea basin. Over its entire length, 459 km (285  miles) flows in Belarus and 359 km (223 mi) in Lithuania. A 116 - kilometer stretch is the border between Lithuania and Russia's Kaliningrad oblast.
• Its greatest depth is five meters (16.4 ft), and at its widest it extends about 500 meters (1640 feet).
• The Neman is a slow river; it flows at about one to two meters/second.
• During floods, water discharge can increase up to 11-fold, to more than 6,800 m³/s. Severe floods occur on the lower reaches of the river about every 12 – 15 years, which sometimes wash out bridges.
• The Neman is an old river, dating back to the last glacial period. Its valley is now up to 60 meters deep and five kilometers broad.
• The Neman has about 105 first-class tributaries, the largest being the rivers Neris (Viliya) (510 km/317 miles), the Shchara (325 km/202 miles), and the Šešupė (298 km/185 miles). Fifteen of the tributaries are longer than 100 km (62 mi).
• In the Neman basin there are tributaries extending to the 11th order.
• The Neman basin in Lithuania drains more than 20,000 rivers and rivulets and covers 72% of Lithuania's territory.
• The total area of the Neman basin is 97,863 square kilometers; the Lithuanian portion of this basin is 46,695 square kilometers.