How big it really is
322,300 km²True area · 124,441 square miles
70 / 242By area
1.02×As Mercator draws it
94 timesFits into Africa
25,716,544People
79.8People per km²
How Mercator draws it
The middle of Côte d'Ivoire is at about 8° 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 1.02× 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: