American Samoa: old map vs new map

Both maps below show American Samoa highlighted. At 14° Mercator inflates American Samoa by only about 6%, so the two maps largely agree on it. Watch what the old map does to New Caledonia beside it. That contrast is why the new world map matters.

At 14°, American Samoa sits in the band the old map drew almost honestly. It is one of the regions Mercator quietly under-represented, and that is exactly what the new Equal Earth map restores.

American Samoa: key figures

	True area	On the old Mercator map	Distortion vs truth
American Samoa	199 km²	212 km²	1.1×
Greenland	2,166,086 km²	25,576,494 km²	11.8×
Africa	30,370,000 km²	n/a	n/a

Old maps drew American Samoa at about 212 km². The truth is 199 km², a difference of 6% that school atlases carried for centuries.

Oceania on the old map vs the new map →American Samoa country page: true area, rank and comparisons →The old world map vs the new world map →