How big it really is
464,296 km²True area · 179,266 square miles
56 / 242By area
1.01×As Mercator draws it
65 timesFits into Africa
8,776,109People
18.9People per km²
How Mercator draws it
The middle of Papua New Guinea is at about 7° 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 1.01× 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:
- Somalia473,609 km²
- Turkmenistan470,634 km²
- Cameroon465,888 km²
- Papua New Guinea464,296 km²
- Yemen454,142 km²
- Uzbekistan447,373 km²
- Sweden442,979 km²