How big it really is
255,671 km²True area · 98,715 square miles
78 / 242By area
1.00×As Mercator draws it
119 timesFits into Africa
17,373,662People
68.0People per km²
How Mercator draws it
The middle of Ecuador is at about 1° S. 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 1.00× 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:
- Burkina Faso273,688 km²
- New Zealand266,865 km²
- Gabon260,666 km²
- Ecuador255,671 km²
- Guinea244,929 km²
- Uganda242,558 km²
- United Kingdom239,616 km²