How big it really is
2,154,775 km²True area · 831,963 square miles
13 / 242By area
11.8×As Mercator draws it
14 timesFits into Africa
56,225People
0.03People per km²
How Mercator draws it
The middle of Greenland is at about 73° 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 11.8× 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:
- Kazakhstan2,712,816 km²
- DR Congo2,334,657 km²
- Algeria2,322,776 km²
- Greenland2,154,775 km²
- Mexico1,962,299 km²
- Saudi Arabia1,925,868 km²
- Indonesia1,872,188 km²