True Size Map — See How Big Countries Really Are
An interactive equal-area map that reveals true country sizes without Mercator distortion.
Most world maps use the Mercator projection, created in 1569 for maritime navigation. While great for plotting ship courses, Mercator dramatically inflates areas near the poles: Greenland appears the size of Africa, even though Africa is 14 times larger. Russia looks bigger than the entire continent of Africa, when in reality Africa is larger.
True Size Map uses the Equal Earth projection, which preserves area accuracy across the entire map. Select any combination of countries, continents, subregions, or individual states and provinces — up to 10 at once — and drag them across the map to compare directly. Each entity is drawn at its true proportional area, so what you see is what you get.
Search in any language, zoom from 0.6x to 40x, switch between quick 110m and detailed 10m resolution, and view a live area ranking table with official statistics from the CIA World Factbook.
Key Features
- Equal Earth projection — no size distortion anywhere on the map
- Compare up to 10 countries, continents, or states simultaneously
- Drag entities across the map to overlay and compare directly
- Switch between 110m overview and 10m high-detail coastlines
- Area ranking table with CIA World Factbook data
- Proportional area blocks for instant visual comparison
Frequently Asked Questions
- Why do countries look different sizes on a regular map?
- Most world maps use the Mercator projection, which preserves angles for navigation but dramatically distorts sizes. Areas near the poles are stretched to appear much larger than they really are. For example, Greenland looks as big as Africa on Mercator maps, but Africa is actually 14 times larger (30.4 million km² vs 2.2 million km²).
- How big is Africa really?
- Africa is 30.37 million km² — larger than the United States, China, India, and most of Europe combined. On a Mercator map, Africa appears roughly the same size as Greenland, but in reality Africa is about 14 times larger.
- Can I compare states and provinces, not just countries?
- Yes. Use the tag filters in the search bar to switch between countries, continents, subregions, and states/provinces. You can compare Texas to France, or California to Japan — any combination of up to 10 entities at once.
- What is the Equal Earth projection?
- Equal Earth is a map projection created in 2018 that shows all areas at their correct relative sizes while still looking visually pleasing. Unlike Mercator, every square kilometer on the map represents the same amount of real-world area, making it ideal for comparing country sizes.