How big it really is
419 km²True area · 162 square miles
201 / 242By area
2.77×As Mercator draws it
72,482 timesFits into Africa
How Mercator draws it
The middle of Heard and McDonald Islands is at about 53° 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 2.77× 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:
- Antigua and Barbuda433 km²
- Tonga432 km²
- Curaçao430 km²
- Heard and McDonald Islands419 km²
- Northern Mariana Islands394 km²
- Barbados389 km²
- Palau341 km²