How big it really is
986 km²True area · 381 square miles
187 / 242By area
1.00×As Mercator draws it
30,801 timesFits into Africa
215,056People
218People per km²
How Mercator draws it
The middle of São Tomé and Príncipe is at about 0° 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 1.00× 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:
- Comoros1,586 km²
- Faroe Islands1,035 km²
- Hong Kong1,029 km²
- São Tomé and Príncipe986 km²
- Kiribati938 km²
- Åland Islands760 km²
- Dominica698 km²