Move the comparison set
Drag any colored country anywhere on the map. The size updates based on its new latitude, just like Mercator does.
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Country Size Comparison
Greenland often looks close to Africa on a Mercator world map, but Africa is far larger in real area. Drag Greenland on the map to see how latitude changes its apparent scale.
Drag any colored country anywhere on the map. The size updates based on its new latitude, just like Mercator does.
True Size Comparison
Greenland often looks close to Africa on a Mercator world map, but Africa is far larger in real area. Drag Greenland on the map to see how latitude changes its apparent scale.
Africa is roughly 14 times larger than Greenland by land area, even though Mercator projection makes Greenland look enormous near the Arctic.
Use the interactive Mercator map above to move countries away from their original latitude. The shape is repositioned on the same projection so you can see how apparent scale changes in real time.
Traditional world maps often exaggerate high-latitude countries. A true size comparison makes the area relationship clearer than a static Mercator map.
No. Greenland is about 2.17 million square kilometers, while Africa is about 30.37 million square kilometers.
Mercator projection stretches areas near the poles, so high-latitude places like Greenland appear much larger than their true area.