| True area | On the old Mercator map | Distortion vs truth |
|---|
| Latvia | 64,254 km² | 215,251 km² | 3.4× |
| Greenland | 2,154,754 km² | 25,447,645 km² | 11.8× |
| Africa | 30,370,000 km² | — | 1× |
Old maps drew Latvia at about 215,251 km² km². The truth is 64,254 km² km² — a difference of 235%% that school atlases carried for centuries.