List of rivers of Lithuania

Rivers of Lithuania are typical lowland rivers: they are slow, they make meanders, the valleys are wide. Because of abundant precipitation, the river net is dense: on the average 0.99 km of rivers flow in 1 km² of the territory.^[1] However, the rivers are not evenly distributed. The highest density is in the Samogitian Highlands where it rains more often and in the northern Lithuania where the soil has clay and it does not allow the water to drain underground. The lowest density is in the southeastern Lithuania where the soil has a lot sand and the rainwater quickly ooze into the underground.

Almost 70% (some 49,600 km²) of the territory of Lithuania are drained by the

During the Soviet times (1945-1990) rivers suffered much damage because of drainage. Many swamps were drained and now they cannot feed the rivers anymore. Other smaller rivers were straightened and turned into drainage canals.

Lithuania counts around 29 thousand watercourses, longer than 0.25 km. The total length of all these watercourses would be around 65,000 km. The number of rivers and rivulets longer than 3 km has been calculated very precisely – 4,418. 758^[2] rivers are longer than 10 km. Lithuania has 21 rivers longer than 100 km (62 mi):

Longest rivers

The

• List of drainage basins of Lithuania

Footnotes