The Mercator projection (1569) keeps compass bearings straight: perfect for 16th-century sailors, misleading for comparing country sizes. Area inflation grows toward the poles, so Canada, Russia and Greenland balloon while equatorial regions shrink.
The Equal Earth projection (2018, adopted by the UN for its maps in 2026) keeps the familiar oval look of older world maps but shows area correctly everywhere.
Same planet, same data, different answer to "which is bigger".
Both maps below show the same world. Pan or zoom on either map and the other follows. That is the point: the only thing that changes between them is the projection.
What to look for
- Greenland and Africa: on the old Mercator map Greenland looks as large as Africa. In truth Africa is ~14× larger. Hover a country to highlight it on both maps at once.
- Russia and Europe: Mercator stretches them far beyond their real share of the world's land.
- The equator region: Africa, South America and Southeast Asia (the parts Mercator shrinks) dominate the new map.
Drag a country from either map to test any comparison yourself; drop it onto another to see the overlap.