Papua New Guinea on the old map vs the new map — Mercator distortion and true size

Old map Mercator · 1569 – 2026

New map Equal Earth · 2026 – ongoing

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factsTitle

	True area	On the old Mercator map	Distortion vs truth
Papua New Guinea	464,271 km²	468,914 km²	1×
Greenland	2,154,754 km²	25,447,645 km²	11.8×
Africa	30,370,000 km²	—	1×

Old maps drew Papua New Guinea at about 468,914 km² km². The truth is 464,271 km² km² — a difference of 1%% that school atlases carried for centuries.