How big it really is
48,590 km²True area · 18,761 square miles
131 / 242By area
1.12×As Mercator draws it
625 timesFits into Africa
10,738,958People
221People per km²
How Mercator draws it
The middle of Dominican Republic is at about 19° 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 1.12× 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:
- Croatia54,419 km²
- Bosnia and Herzegovina51,685 km²
- Costa Rica51,514 km²
- Dominican Republic48,590 km²
- Slovakia48,339 km²
- Estonia45,456 km²
- Denmark42,418 km²