| True area | On the old Mercator map | Distortion vs truth |
| Sweden | 442,970 km² | 2,059,811 km² | 4.7× |
| Greenland | 2,154,754 km² | 25,447,645 km² | 11.8× |
| Africa | 30,370,000 km² | — | 1× |
Old maps drew Sweden at about 2,059,811 km² km². The truth is 442,970 km² km² — a difference of 365%% that school atlases carried for centuries.