How big it really is
1,185,074 km²True area · 457,559 square miles
26 / 242By area
1.10×As Mercator draws it
26 timesFits into Africa
23,310,715People
19.7People per km²
How Mercator draws it
The middle of Niger is at about 17° 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 1.10× 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: