How big it really is
22,781 km²True area · 8,796 square miles
151 / 242By area
1.10×As Mercator draws it
1,333 timesFits into Africa
390,353People
17.1People per km²
How Mercator draws it
The middle of Belize is at about 17° N. Mercator stretches each place by the same amount across and up, more the further it is from the equator, so here every area comes out 1.10× its true size.
At the equator nothing is stretched. At 60° north or south, everything is drawn at four times its true area. The poles never fit on the map at all.
Countries about this size
The countries just bigger and just smaller, each at its true area:
- Solomon Islands25,740 km²
- Rwanda25,386 km²
- North Macedonia25,364 km²
- Belize22,781 km²
- Israel22,051 km²
- Djibouti21,704 km²
- El Salvador20,391 km²