How big it really is
25,740 km²True area · 9,938 square miles
148 / 242By area
1.03×As Mercator draws it
1,180 timesFits into Africa
669,823People
26.0People per km²
How Mercator draws it
The middle of Solomon Islands is at about 10° 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 1.03× 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:
- Burundi27,208 km²
- Haiti26,806 km²
- Equatorial Guinea26,644 km²
- Solomon Islands25,740 km²
- Rwanda25,386 km²
- North Macedonia25,364 km²
- Belize22,781 km²