How big it really is
177,567 km²True area · 68,559 square miles
91 / 242By area
1.42×As Mercator draws it
171 timesFits into Africa
3,461,734People
19.5People per km²
How Mercator draws it
The middle of Uruguay is at about 33° 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 1.42× 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: