How big it really is
432 km²True area · 167 square miles
199 / 242By area
1.15×As Mercator draws it
70,301 timesFits into Africa
104,494People
242People per km²
How Mercator draws it
The middle of Tonga is at about 21° 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 1.15× 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:
- Guam482 km²
- Andorra442 km²
- Antigua and Barbuda433 km²
- Tonga432 km²
- Curaçao430 km²
- Heard and McDonald Islands419 km²
- Northern Mariana Islands394 km²