How big it really is
341 km²True area · 132 square miles
204 / 242By area
1.02×As Mercator draws it
89,062 timesFits into Africa
18,008People
52.8People per km²
How Mercator draws it
The middle of Palau is at about 8° 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:
- Heard and McDonald Islands419 km²
- Northern Mariana Islands394 km²
- Barbados389 km²
- Palau341 km²
- Turks and Caicos330 km²
- US Virgin Islands316 km²
- St Vincent and the Grenadines311 km²