How big is each country really?
Flat maps stretch the world. Pick two countries below to see their real sizes side by side, drawn without the stretching.
Why maps get size wrong
The Mercator projection, published by Gerardus Mercator in 1569, was made for sailors: a straight line on it is a constant compass direction. To do that, it stretches the map east–west and north–south by the same amount, and the stretch grows toward the poles. Area grows by 1 ÷ cos²(latitude), so land far from the equator looks far too big.
| Latitude | Area on a Mercator map | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| 0° | 1.0× | Ecuador, Kenya, Indonesia |
| 30° | 1.3× | Egypt, Texas |
| 45° | 2.0× | Northern Italy, Oregon |
| 60° | 4.0× | Oslo, Helsinki, southern Alaska |
| 70° | 8.5× | Northern Norway (Hammerfest) |
| 80° | 33.2× | Svalbard, far north Greenland |
At the poles the stretch becomes infinite, which is why Mercator maps cut off before 90°.
Greenland and Africa
Greenland covers 2,166,086 km² (836,330 sq mi). The 55 African countries on our globe add up to about 30.4 million km² (11.7 million sq mi). So Africa is about 14 times the size of Greenland, even though they can look alike on a Mercator map. Try it in the tool: Greenland against DR Congo (2,344,858 km² (905,355 sq mi)) is a good start.
The biggest countries
| Country | Area |
|---|---|
| Russia | 17,075,400 km² (6,592,849 sq mi) |
| Canada | 9,984,670 km² (3,855,103 sq mi) |
| United States | 9,826,675 km² (3,794,100 sq mi) |
| China | 9,596,961 km² (3,705,407 sq mi) |
| Brazil | 8,515,767 km² (3,287,956 sq mi) |
| Australia | 7,692,024 km² (2,969,907 sq mi) |
| India | 3,287,263 km² (1,269,219 sq mi) |
| DR Congo | 2,344,858 km² (905,355 sq mi) |
| Greenland | 2,166,086 km² (836,330 sq mi) |
Greenland is a territory of the Kingdom of Denmark; it is included for comparison.
See it on the globe
A globe has no stretching at all. Open the 3D globe, switch to Borders and turn from Africa to Greenland to see the real difference.
Questions
Why does Greenland look as big as Africa?
Most web and wall maps use the Mercator projection, which makes land look bigger the farther it is from the equator. Greenland sits so far north that Mercator draws it many times too large. In reality Africa is about 14 times the size of Greenland.
Which map shows the true size of countries?
No flat map gets everything right. Equal-area projections, such as Mollweide or Equal Earth, keep every area correct but bend shapes. A globe keeps both size and shape.
How does the comparison tool work?
It draws each country on an equal-area projection centred on that country, at the same scale, and lays one on top of the other. Areas are from Wikidata.
Sources
- Wikidata (CC0): capitals and areas (areas of all countries in the tool and tables)
- Natural Earth 1:50m country boundaries and populated places (public domain) (country shapes)
- Mercator scale factor: standard map projection math, see John P. Snyder, Map Projections: A Working Manual, USGS Professional Paper 1395 (1987)