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
Russia spans far northern latitudes, so Mercator maps exaggerate parts of it. Compare Russia with the United States at true geographic scale.
Drag any colored country anywhere on the map. The size updates based on its new latitude, just like Mercator does.
True Size Comparison
Russia spans far northern latitudes, so Mercator maps exaggerate parts of it. Compare Russia with the United States at true geographic scale.
Russia is about 1.7 times the area of the United States, but Mercator projection can make the visual difference look even larger.
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.
Russia is about 17.1 million square kilometers, compared with about 9.8 million square kilometers for the United States.
Yes. Because much of Russia is far north, Mercator projection stretches its apparent area on flat world maps.