How big it really is
51,685 km²True area · 19,956 square miles
129 / 242By area
1.94×As Mercator draws it
588 timesFits into Africa
3,301,000People
63.9People per km²
How Mercator draws it
The middle of Bosnia and Herzegovina is at about 44° 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 1.94× 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:
- Latvia64,262 km²
- Togo57,140 km²
- Croatia54,419 km²
- Bosnia and Herzegovina51,685 km²
- Costa Rica51,514 km²
- Dominican Republic48,590 km²
- Slovakia48,339 km²