One of Africa’s Big Five countries is shown on world maps to be half the size it actually is, while a small European country appears to be double its real area.
World maps show country sizes to be geographically inaccurate depending on their placement near the Poles.
Egypt is one of Africa’s biggest economies, with a population of over 117 million in 2024 and a GDP of $347.59billion (£ 266.70bn). But, on a map, the inaccurate display of the country does not reflect its true size.
Some countries are shown to be a lot bigger than they really are in and around the Poles, while others appear to be much smaller, with distances between various land masses greatly misrepresented.
Egypt is a whopping 1,002,450 square kilometres (sq km). On a normal global map, it looks almost the same size as a north European country like Finland which is just 338,424 sq km.
Now when you move Egypt next to Finland, you actually get to see the African nation is almost double in size.
Similar to this is Greenland. The country appears to be about the same size as Africa on maps, but the continent is nearly 14-and-a-half times larger. Greenland is just 2,166,086 sq km, whereas Africa is 30,043,862 sq km.
Yet, flat maps show something quite different.
On the opposite end of the scale, Brazil is shown to be much smaller compared to the reality of it. Comparing the South American country (8,515,767 sq km) to the entire continent of Europe, which dominates most of the northern hemisphere, they are fairly equal in size.
The changes in country sizes on maps are due to the Mercator Projection, a type of map dating back to 1569, introduced by Geradus Mercator.
Described as a cylindrical projection which is derived mathematically, the horizontal parallel straight lines are spaced further apart as their distance increases from the equator.
Because of this, areas furthest from the equator appear disproportionately large.
