How big it really is
755,605 km²True area · 291,741 square miles
39 / 242By area
1.06×As Mercator draws it
40 timesFits into Africa
17,861,030People
23.6People per km²
How Mercator draws it
The middle of Zambia is at about 13° 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 1.06× 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:
- Namibia824,667 km²
- Mozambique790,688 km²
- Turkey779,831 km²
- Zambia755,605 km²
- Chile737,458 km²
- Myanmar662,773 km²
- Afghanistan642,052 km²