Explore The Real Size Of Earth's Land Masses With This Interactive Map

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Mapping

Explore the real size of Earth's land masses with this interactive map

The True Size map lets users compare countries by their actual size in square kilometres

• Aug 24, 2016
• 287 words
• 2 minutes

By Alexandra Pope

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Are you sitting down? The world map you’re probably most familiar with has been misleading you in a subtle but important way: many land masses appear either smaller or larger than they actually are. 

Fortunately, a new online map, The True Size Of, is here to set the record straight. The interactive map allows users to search for a country and then compare its actual surface area against a Mercator projection map, one of the most popular and yet most inaccurate maps of our world. 

The problem is that to portray our spherical globe in two-dimensional form, cartographers have to use a “projection,” which converts lines of latitude and longitude into locations on a plane. All projections cause some distortion, but the Mercator projection is particularly egregious, exaggerating the size of land masses near the poles, while shrinking land masses near the equator.

For example, Greenland is usually portrayed as roughly the same size as the continent of Africa, but its actual surface area is about 2.1 million square kilometres — less than the African country of Algeria. Conversely, Brazil — the fifth-largest country in the world by surface area — appears to be the same size as the state of Alaska, but as the screenshots below demonstrate, the reality is wildly different. 

James Talmage and Damon Maneice, creators of The True Size Of, say they hope geography teachers will use the map to show their students how big the world really is. 

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On a standard Mercator projection map (left), Alaska and Brazil appear similar in size, but in reality (right), Alaska is a fifth of the size of Brazil. (Map: James Talmage and Damon Maneice/The True Size Of)

Related: Book one of our giant floor maps for your school!

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