Both maps below show Benin highlighted. At 10° Mercator inflates Benin by only about 3%, so the two maps largely agree on it. Watch what the old map does to Mali beside it. That contrast is why the new world map matters.
At 10°, Benin 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.
Benin: key figures
| True area | On the old Mercator map | Distortion vs truth |
|---|
| Benin | 114,763 km² | 118,068 km² | 1.03× |
| Greenland | 2,166,086 km² | 25,576,494 km² | 11.8× |
| Africa | 30,370,000 km² | n/a | n/a |
Old maps drew Benin at about 118,068 km². The truth is 114,763 km², a difference of 3% that school atlases carried for centuries.