The Real Size of Countries

Most world maps hugely inflate countries near the poles. Pick any country and drag it across the map: it keeps its real size and shape, so you can see how Greenland, Russia or Canada really compare. Free, no sign-up.

Options

Countries That Are Bigger (or Smaller) Than They Look

ComparisonTrue areasReality
Africa vs Greenland30.4M vs 2.17M km²Africa is about 14× larger, though they look similar on Mercator.
DR Congo vs Greenland2.34M vs 2.17M km²DR Congo is slightly larger than Greenland.
Australia vs Greenland7.69M vs 2.17M km²Australia is about 3.5× larger.
Canada vs Brazil9.98M vs 8.52M km²Canada is only about 1.2× larger, not the 3× it appears.
Africa vs Russia30.4M vs 17.1M km²Africa is about 1.8× the size of Russia.
Madagascar vs United Kingdom587,041 vs 242,900 km²Madagascar is about 2.4× larger than the UK.

Map Projections Explained

Turning the round Earth into a flat map always distorts something: area, shape, distance or direction. A map projection is the mathematical rule that decides which of these to keep. Conformal projections like Mercator keep angles and local shapes, equal-area projections like Equal Earth keep sizes, and compromise projections like Natural Earth and Robinson spread the errors around so the world looks about right.

Mercator was designed in 1569 for sailors, because a straight line on it is a line of constant compass bearing. That same property forces it to stretch areas by a factor of sec² of the latitude: about 1.3× at 30°, 4× at 60° and over 30× at 80°. Web maps use it because it lets you zoom into any street with the right shapes, but at world scale it shrinks the tropics relative to Europe, North America and Russia. Switch projections above the map to see the difference, or explore the whole globe in the World Atlas.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why do maps show the wrong size of countries?
Most world maps, including Google Maps and other web maps, use the Mercator projection. It keeps angles and local shapes correct, which is ideal for navigation, but to do that it stretches everything more and more toward the poles: by about 4 times in area at 60° latitude and more than 10 times at Greenland's latitude. Countries near the equator, like those in Africa, South America and Southeast Asia, look much smaller than they really are by comparison.
How big is Greenland compared to Africa?
Greenland covers about 2.17 million km², while Africa covers about 30.4 million km², so Africa is roughly 14 times larger. On a Mercator map they look about the same size. Greenland is even smaller than DR Congo (2.34 million km²). Press Greenland vs Africa above the map to see Greenland moved to Africa's latitude at its true size.
How does the true size tool work?
When you drag a country, the tool does not simply slide its outline across the map. It rotates the country across the surface of the globe to the new position, keeping its real area and shape, and then draws it with the chosen map projection. That is why a country shrinks as you drag it toward the equator on a Mercator map and grows as you drag it toward the poles.
What is the most accurate map projection?
No flat map can preserve area, shape, distance and direction all at once, so every projection is a trade-off. Equal-area projections such as Equal Earth show every country at its true relative size. Mercator keeps angles and local shapes correct for navigation. Compromise projections such as Natural Earth and Robinson balance the errors to look natural. Switch projections above the map to compare them.
Which country is the biggest?
Russia is the largest country at about 17.1 million km², nearly twice the size of Canada (about 10 million km²), then China, the United States and Brazil. Even so, Africa as a continent is about 1.8 times the size of Russia, which the Mercator projection hides. Together, those five countries cover more than a third of the total land area in this tool's own dataset.
Where do the country outlines and areas come from?
Borders come from Natural Earth, a public-domain map dataset, and areas from national statistics as compiled in the World Atlas on this site. Outlines are simplified for the web, so small islands may be missing; the areas shown are the official figures, not measured from the simplified shapes. This tool loads the same /tools/atlas/data files as the World Atlas and draws them with d3-geo v7, so the figures stay consistent between both tools on this site.