Both maps below show Costa Rica highlighted. At 10° Mercator inflates Costa Rica by only about 3%, so the two maps largely agree on it. Watch what the old map does to Belize beside it. That contrast is why the new world map matters.
At 10°, Costa Rica 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.
Costa Rica: key figures
| True area | On the old Mercator map | Distortion vs truth |
|---|
| Costa Rica | 51,180 km² | 52,761 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 Costa Rica at about 52,761 km². The truth is 51,180 km², a difference of 3% that school atlases carried for centuries.