How big it really is
473,609 km²True area · 182,861 square miles
53 / 242By area
1.01×As Mercator draws it
64 timesFits into Africa
10,192,317People
21.5People per km²
How Mercator draws it
The middle of Somalia is at about 5° 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 1.01× 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:
- Ukraine570,161 km²
- Thailand515,736 km²
- Spain506,171 km²
- Somalia473,609 km²
- Turkmenistan470,634 km²
- Cameroon465,888 km²
- Papua New Guinea464,296 km²