How big it really is
130,166 km²True area · 50,257 square miles
98 / 242By area
1.68×As Mercator draws it
233 timesFits into Africa
10,716,322People
82.3People per km²
How Mercator draws it
The middle of Greece is at about 39° 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 1.68× 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:
- Suriname145,576 km²
- Tajikistan142,295 km²
- Bangladesh135,652 km²
- Greece130,166 km²
- Nicaragua129,243 km²
- Eritrea123,686 km²
- North Korea122,496 km²