Comparison between the H I (left panel) and H₂ (right panel) surface density profiles of the Milky Way (shaded regions), as determined in this work, and of a sample of nearby barred spirals (symbols and lines) from Leroy et al. (2008, L08) and de Blok et al. (2008, dB08). Data for NGC 5236 are from Crosthwaite et al. (2002, C02). NGC 3351 and NGC 3198 (solid lines) have “SB” morphological classification (from CR3), the other galaxies are classified as SAB. We note the different scales used for Σ_HI and Σ_H2.