Northern Mariana Islands: old map vs new map

Both maps below show Northern Mariana Islands highlighted. At 16° Mercator inflates Northern Mariana Islands by only about 8%, so the two maps largely agree on it. Watch what the old map does to Japan beside it. That contrast is why the new world map matters.

At 16°, Northern Mariana Islands 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.

Northern Mariana Islands: key figures

	True area	On the old Mercator map	Distortion vs truth
Northern Mariana Islands	457 km²	494 km²	1.1×
Greenland	2,166,086 km²	25,576,494 km²	11.8×
Africa	30,370,000 km²	n/a	n/a

Old maps drew Northern Mariana Islands at about 494 km². The truth is 457 km², a difference of 8% that school atlases carried for centuries.

Oceania on the old map vs the new map →Northern Mariana Islands country page: true area, rank and comparisons →The old world map vs the new world map →