How big it really is
1,131,800 km²True area · 436,990 square miles
28 / 242By area
1.02×As Mercator draws it
27 timesFits into Africa
112,078,730People
99.0People per km²
How Mercator draws it
The middle of Ethiopia is at about 9° 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:
- South Africa1,221,697 km²
- Niger1,185,074 km²
- Colombia1,139,448 km²
- Ethiopia1,131,800 km²
- Bolivia1,090,287 km²
- Mauritania1,038,358 km²
- Egypt1,003,603 km²