Both maps below show Côte d'Ivoire highlighted. At 8° Mercator inflates Côte d'Ivoire by only about 2%, 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 8°, Côte d'Ivoire 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.
Côte d'Ivoire: key figures
| True area | On the old Mercator map | Distortion vs truth |
|---|
| Côte d'Ivoire | 322,462 km² | 328,234 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 Côte d'Ivoire at about 328,234 km². The truth is 322,462 km², a difference of 2% that school atlases carried for centuries.