British Indian Ocean Territory: old map vs new map

Both maps below show British Indian Ocean Territory highlighted. At 7° Mercator inflates British Indian Ocean Territory by only about 2%, so the two maps largely agree on it. Watch what the old map does to Mauritius beside it. That contrast is why the new world map matters.

At 7°, British Indian Ocean Territory 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.

British Indian Ocean Territory: key figures

	True area	On the old Mercator map	Distortion vs truth
British Indian Ocean Territory	60 km²	61 km²	1.02×
Greenland	2,166,086 km²	25,576,494 km²	11.8×
Africa	30,370,000 km²	n/a	n/a

Old maps drew British Indian Ocean Territory at about 61 km². The truth is 60 km², a difference of 2% that school atlases carried for centuries.

Africa on the old map vs the new map →British Indian Ocean Territory country page: true area, rank and comparisons →The old world map vs the new world map →