North America covers about 24,710,000 km², roughly 18.1% of the world's land and the 3rd largest continent. It spans 38 countries and territories, from Canada (9,984,670 km²) down to Saint Barthélemy.
At true size North America is about 0.55× the size of Asia. On old Mercator maps that gap shrank or swelled depending on latitude. On the new map it is simply true.
Mercator's distortion hits North America unevenly: Greenland is inflated about 11.8× at its latitude, while Panama, near the equator, is drawn almost honestly. Old maps therefore made North America's northern countries feel dominant while hiding the scale of its equatorial ones.
North America: largest countries by true area
| Country | True area |
|---|
| Canada | 9,984,670 km² |
| United States | 9,525,067 km² |
| Greenland | 2,166,086 km² |
| Mexico | 1,964,375 km² |
| Nicaragua | 130,373 km² |
| Honduras | 112,492 km² |
Explore North America further
Canada · United States · Greenland · Mexico · Nicaragua · Honduras · Cuba · Guatemala · Panama · Costa Rica · Dominican Republic · Haiti · Belize · El Salvador · Bahamas · Jamaica · Puerto Rico · Trinidad and Tobago · Turks and Caicos Islands · Dominica · Saint Lucia · Curaçao · Antigua and Barbuda · Barbados · Saint Vincent and the Grenadines · U.S. Virgin Islands · Grenada · Cayman Islands · Saint Kitts and Nevis · St. Pierre and Miquelon · Aruba · British Virgin Islands · Montserrat · Anguilla · Bermuda · Saint Martin · Sint Maarten · Saint Barthélemy