Many world maps make Greenland look about as big as Africa. In reality, Africa is 14 times bigger. The map above shows why: every country you drag keeps its true size, while the Mercator map around it stretches more and more toward the poles. Below, you’ll find how to use it, why maps distort, and real numbers for the most famous comparisons.
How to use the true size map
The map at the top of this page is a live Web Mercator map, the kind most map apps use, and every country on it is its real outline.
- Search for a country. Type a name and pick it from the list. It appears where it really is, as big as Mercator draws it there.
- Drag it. Pull it toward the equator and it shrinks; push it toward the poles and it grows. The country never changes size. The map’s stretching does.
- Compare it with the dashed outline. A dashed outline stays where the country really is, so you can see both sizes side by side.
- Read the ×N number. It tells you how many times bigger the map draws the country where it sits now. Greenland at home reads about ×16. On the equator, it drops close to ×1.
- Rotate it. Turn the selected country to line it up with a coastline or fit it inside another country.
- Share it. Copy the link, and anyone who opens it sees your map exactly as you left it: the same countries, in the same places.
Not sure where to start? Open one of these popular comparisons in the map:
- Greenland vs DR CongoGreenland looks as big as Africa on many maps. Moved to the equator, it is smaller than DR Congo.
- US, China and India in AfricaThe lower 48 states, China and India all fit inside Africa, with room to spare.
- Russia vs AfricaRussia is the largest country in the world, but Africa is almost twice its size.
- Australia vs the USAustralia is almost exactly the size of the lower 48 states.
- UK vs MadagascarMadagascar is more than twice the size of the United Kingdom.
- Indonesia across the USIndonesia stretches wider than the United States, coast to coast.
- Canada vs BrazilCanada looks enormous next to Brazil, yet at the same latitude the two are close in size.
What “true size” means
A country’s true size is its surface area: how much of the Earth it covers, measured in square kilometers (km²) or square miles. On a globe, every country is drawn at the same scale, so you can compare sizes at a glance.
A flat map can’t do that. You can’t flatten the surface of a sphere without stretching or tearing it, so every flat map gives something up: area, shape, distance or direction. The method a mapmaker uses to flatten the globe is called a projection.
The Mercator projection keeps angles and the local shape of coastlines true, and gives up area to do it. The farther a place is from the equator, the more Mercator enlarges it, so size on the map stops meaning size on the Earth. That gap is exactly what the true size map lets you see.
Why maps distort: the Mercator projection
A map made for sailors in 1569
Gerardus Mercator, a Flemish mapmaker, published his world map in 1569 for navigators. On it, a line of constant compass bearing is a straight line. A sailor could draw a course from port to port with a ruler, read the angle, and hold that bearing all the way.
To keep every angle true, Mercator had to stretch the map. On a globe, lines of longitude meet at the poles; on his map they run straight up and down, so the world is stretched east to west, more and more toward the poles. He stretched it north to south by the same amount, which keeps shapes and angles correct. At 60° latitude both stretches are 2 times, so areas look 4 times too big.
How much Mercator enlarges each latitude
The stretch depends only on latitude. Lengths are enlarged by 1 / cos(latitude) and areas by its square. Near the equator the effect is small; past 60° it climbs fast, and at the poles it becomes infinite.
| Latitude | Lengths look | Areas look |
|---|---|---|
| 0°The equator: Quito, Singapore | 1.00× | 1.00× |
| 30°Cairo, New Orleans | 1.15× | 1.33× |
| 45°Minneapolis, Venice | 1.41× | 2.00× |
| 60°Oslo, Helsinki | 2.00× | 4.00× |
| 70°Northern Norway, Alaska’s Arctic coast | 2.92× | 8.55× |
| 75°Northern Greenland | 3.86× | 14.9× |
| 80°Greenland’s far north, Svalbard | 5.76× | 33.2× |
| 85°The top edge of a web map | 11.5× | 132× |
That’s why web maps stop at about 85° north and south, the latitude where the world becomes a perfect square. It’s also why Antarctica, the fifth-largest continent at about 14.2 million km² (1.8 times the size of Australia), shows up on Mercator maps as a stretched white band along the bottom, if it shows up at all.
Why Google Maps uses Web Mercator
Google Maps adopted Web Mercator (EPSG:3857), a variant of Mercator, in 2005, and most web maps followed. Because it keeps angles, streets cross at the right angles and buildings keep their shapes at every zoom level, which matters far more when you’re finding a café than when you’re comparing continents. Its square world also splits neatly into the square tiles that web maps load as you pan and zoom.
Size is the price, and in 2018 Google Maps on desktop began showing a 3D globe when you zoom far out. The map on this page uses Web Mercator on purpose: it’s the map you already know, so you can watch exactly how it bends the world.
Famous true size comparisons, with real numbers
Here are the comparisons people ask about most, worked out from official areas (sources are in the table further down). Each link opens the comparison in the map.
Greenland vs Africa: how big is Greenland, really?
Greenland covers about 2.17 million km². Africa covers about 30.37 million km², so Africa is 14 times bigger. On a Mercator map they look about the same, because Greenland, between about 60° and 84° north, is drawn about 16 times too big, while Africa, which straddles the equator, is drawn only about 12% too big. Mercator even makes Greenland look bigger than South America, though it’s smaller than the Arabian Peninsula.
Move Greenland to the equator and it ends up smaller than DR Congo (2.34 million km²), Africa’s second-largest country. India is 1.5 times the size of Greenland, and Greenland is only a little bigger than Mexico (1.1 times) and Indonesia (1.14 times).
Africa vs the US, China and India
Africa is about 3.1 times the size of the whole United States, Alaska included, and 3.8 times the lower 48 states. The United States, China and India together cover about 22.7 million km², which leaves about 7.6 million km² of Africa to spare: almost exactly the size of Australia (7.74 million km²).
Russia vs Africa
Russia is the largest country in the world at 17.1 million km², about 1.7 times the size of the United States or Canada. Africa is still almost 1.8 times bigger. On a Mercator map the order flips: most of Russia lies north of 50°, so it’s drawn about 5 times too big and looks about 2.5 times the size of Africa.
Canada vs the US vs China: total area or land area?
By total area, the largest countries are Russia, Canada, the United States and China, in that order. Canada (9,984,670 km²) beats the United States (9,833,517 km²) by 1.5%, and the United States beats China (9,596,960 km²) by 2.5%.
Count only land and the order changes. Canada has so many lakes and rivers that the United States has more land: 9,147,593 km² against Canada’s 9,093,507 km². China has more land than either, at 9,326,410 km². So “Is Canada bigger than the US?” has two right answers, depending on whether you count water.
On a Mercator map it doesn’t look close at all. Canada is drawn about 5 times too big and the United States, Alaska included, about 2.3 times, so Canada looks more than twice the size of the US. Next to Brazil, which is only about 15% smaller, Canada looks almost 6 times bigger.
The US with and without Alaska
The 50 states and DC cover 9,833,517 km². Without Alaska and Hawaii, the lower 48 states and DC cover about 8.08 million km². Alaska alone is 1,723,337 km²: about 2.5 times the size of Texas (695,662 km²) and a little more than a fifth of the lower 48.
Mercator makes Alaska look far bigger than that. It’s drawn about 5 times too big, so on the map it looks more than half the size of the lower 48. In the tool, add the “United States” (with Alaska and Hawaii) and the “Contiguous United States” (the lower 48) to see both.
Brazil and Australia vs the lower 48
Brazil (8,515,770 km²) is about 5% bigger than the lower 48 states. Australia (7,741,220 km²) is about 4% smaller, close enough that the two look like twins when you lay one over the other. On a Mercator map, the lower 48 look about 40% bigger than Australia instead.
The UK vs Madagascar
Madagascar (587,041 km²) is 2.4 times the size of the United Kingdom (243,610 km²). On a Mercator map they look about the same: the UK, between about 50° and 61° north, is drawn almost 3 times too big, and Madagascar, between about 12° and 26° south, only about 13% too big.
How wide is Indonesia?
Indonesia has less land than Greenland, but it’s long. Its islands stretch about 5,100 km from east to west, more than the 4,130 km between San Francisco and New York. Mercator draws it at almost exactly its true size because it sits on the equator, while the countries you’d usually compare it with are inflated, so it looks smaller than it is.
How much bigger countries look on a Mercator map
This table uses the same outlines you drag on the map. We measured each outline twice, once on the globe and once as drawn on Web Mercator where the country really is. The ratio between the two is the ×N number the tool shows for a country at home.
| Country | Looks this much bigger | Measured area (km²) |
|---|---|---|
| Greenland | 16.4× | 2,137,890 |
| NorwayIncludes Svalbard and Jan Mayen | 9.02× | 379,487 |
| Iceland | 5.59× | 101,400 |
| Finland | 5.46× | 331,875 |
| Canada | 5.14× | 9,928,816 |
| Russia | 4.90× | 16,846,651 |
| Sweden | 4.87× | 443,493 |
| United Kingdom | 2.93× | 244,342 |
| Germany | 2.54× | 356,574 |
| United StatesIncludes Alaska and Hawaii | 2.29× | 9,465,941 |
| Kazakhstan | 2.26× | 2,697,606 |
| Contiguous United StatesThe lower 48 states, without Alaska and Hawaii | 1.71× | 7,947,370 |
| Japan | 1.60× | 372,660 |
| China | 1.59× | 9,376,810 |
| Argentina | 1.55× | 2,780,537 |
| Australia | 1.25× | 7,704,297 |
| Mexico | 1.21× | 1,960,519 |
| India | 1.19× | 3,158,206 |
| Madagascar | 1.13× | 594,523 |
| Brazil | 1.06× | 8,525,805 |
| DR Congo | 1.01× | 2,335,422 |
| Indonesia | 1.00× | 1,901,279 |
The pattern is simple: the farther from the equator, the bigger the error. Countries that straddle the equator, like DR Congo and Indonesia, are drawn almost exactly to scale, while everything in the far north is inflated several times over. Norway ranks second because its outline includes Svalbard, an Arctic archipelago around 78° north. Mainland Norway alone looks about 5.5 times bigger, close to Iceland and Finland.
Real areas of the countries in this guide
These are the official total areas behind the comparisons above, in square kilometers and square miles.
| Place | Area (km²) | Area (sq mi) |
|---|---|---|
| Africa (continent)Britannica | 30,365,000 | 11,724,000 |
| RussiaCIA World Factbook | 17,098,242 | 6,601,668 |
| CanadaCIA World Factbook | 9,984,670 | 3,855,103 |
| United States (50 states and DC)US Census Bureau | 9,833,517 | 3,796,742 |
| ChinaCIA World Factbook | 9,596,960 | 3,705,407 |
| BrazilCIA World Factbook | 8,515,770 | 3,287,957 |
| Contiguous United States (lower 48 and DC)US Census Bureau, minus Alaska and Hawaii | 8,081,867 | 3,120,426 |
| AustraliaCIA World Factbook | 7,741,220 | 2,988,902 |
| IndiaCIA World Factbook | 3,287,263 | 1,269,219 |
| DR CongoCIA World Factbook | 2,344,858 | 905,355 |
| GreenlandCIA World Factbook | 2,166,086 | 836,330 |
| MexicoCIA World Factbook | 1,964,375 | 758,449 |
| IndonesiaCIA World Factbook | 1,904,569 | 735,358 |
| AlaskaUS Census Bureau | 1,723,337 | 665,384 |
| TexasUS Census Bureau | 695,662 | 268,596 |
| MadagascarCIA World Factbook | 587,041 | 226,658 |
| United KingdomCIA World Factbook | 243,610 | 94,058 |
Sources: CIA World Factbook (archived December 9, 2025; the Factbook was discontinued in February 2026), US Census Bureau and Britannica. The contiguous US is the Census total minus Alaska and Hawaii. Square miles are converted from square kilometers where a source publishes only one.
Total area vs land area
Total area counts land plus inland water, such as lakes, rivers and reservoirs, and for some countries coastal water too. Land area leaves the water out. The difference decides close races: Canada’s 9,984,670 km² include 891,163 km² of water, which is why it beats the United States on total area but not on land.
Why the map’s numbers differ a little
The measured areas in the Mercator table above come from the outlines on the map: the land inside each country’s coastline and borders, measured on the globe. Official totals also include inland and coastal water, and the outlines leave out the smallest islands, so the two can differ by a few percent. The United States outline measures 9,465,941 km², for example, against an official total of 9,833,517 km². Where a border is disputed, an outline follows one line, which may not match every country’s claim.
Maps that show true size
If you need a flat map that gets sizes right, use an equal-area projection. Every country is drawn at the same scale, so a country that looks twice as big really is twice as big. The price is shape: equal-area maps squash or bend countries, most of all near their edges.
Gall–Peters, Equal Earth and AuthaGraph
- Gall–Peters keeps Mercator’s rectangle but squeezes the high latitudes, so areas are right while the tropics stretch into tall, thin shapes. James Gall described it in 1855, and Arno Peters made it famous in the 1970s.
- Equal Earth, published in 2018 by Bojan Šavrič, Tom Patterson and Bernhard Jenny, keeps areas true with gently curved sides, so continents keep shapes close to the ones you know.
- AuthaGraph, created by Japanese architect Hajime Narukawa in 1999, folds the globe into a rectangle that keeps areas nearly in proportion.
Only a globe gets size, shape, distance and direction right all at once.
Correct The Map and Equal Earth
In August 2025, the African Union endorsed Correct The Map, a campaign led by the advocacy groups Africa No Filter and Speak Up Africa that asks governments, schools and international organizations to use the Equal Earth projection instead of Mercator. Its argument is the one this page makes visible: Mercator makes Africa look small next to Europe and North America, which it draws bigger than they are.
On September 4, 2026, the UN General Assembly adopted a non-binding resolution, introduced by Togo, that encourages wider use of equal-area projections, particularly Equal Earth, where the relative size of continents matters (164 votes in favor, 1 against and 6 abstentions).
Why people love the true size map
Dragging Greenland down to Africa is the moment people remember. A shape you’ve seen on maps your whole life shrinks as you drag it, until it’s smaller than DR Congo. You could read the same fact in a table, but watching it happen is what makes it stick.
The idea has been spreading for years. In October 2010, designer Kai Krause published “The True Size of Africa,” a graphic that fitted the United States, China, India and much of Europe inside Africa’s outline, and The Economist ran its own version a few weeks later.
Teachers use the same trick to introduce map projections and to show that every map is a choice. Students can test their guesses and share what they find: every map you make here has a link that reopens it exactly.
Turn your comparison into a map video
Found a comparison worth sharing? Tell it as a video. In Mappi you can highlight countries with animated borders, fly the camera from one to the next, add labels with their areas, and export the result for a lesson, a YouTube video or a TikTok.
- Start a free map in the Mappi editor, right in your browser.
- Learn to outline countries in How to Highlight Countries, States, and Cities on a Map.
- See how creators and newsrooms use political map videos for borders, elections and conflicts.
New to Mappi? It turns the places you pick into a map animation, with no editing skills needed.
Sources and method
Outlines. Country outlines come from Mappi’s place boundary dataset, with a few repaired from Natural Earth, which is in the public domain. They’re simplified so they move smoothly: the smallest islands are left out, and long straight borders get extra points so they bend correctly when a country moves.
Moving. Dragging a country rotates its outline across the globe, keeping north up at its center, and then draws it in Web Mercator. A rotation on a sphere never changes size or shape, so the country stays true; only the map’s stretching changes.
Areas. Measured areas are computed on the globe from the same outlines, on a sphere with the Earth’s mean radius (6,371 km). The ×N number compares that area with the area the outline covers on the Web Mercator map. The official figures and key facts in this guide come from these sources:
- CIA World Factbook, area country comparison (archived December 9, 2025)
- Final World Factbook data (factbook.json), for land and water areas
- US Census Bureau, State Area Measurements and Internal Point Coordinates
- Britannica, Africa (archived January 3, 2026)
- Britannica, Indonesia (archived December 24, 2025)
- Šavrič, Patterson and Jenny, “The Equal Earth map projection” (2018)
- NPR, “African Union backs campaign to replace Mercator map that distorts Africa’s size” (August 21, 2025)
- United Nations, General Assembly press release GA/12779 (September 4, 2026)
- Natural Earth, public domain map data
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