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Biggest Countries on the Mercator Projection

Which countries appear the largest on a Mercator Projection of the world?
Change = change in apparent size compared to an equal area map
Using a latitude cutoff of 85.0511°
Does not include autonomous regions such as GREENLAND!
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Last updated: April 29, 2025
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First submittedNovember 20, 2020
Times taken46,122
Average score85.7%
Rating4.87
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Rank
% Change
Country
1
+54
Russia
2
+63
Canada
3
-28
United States
4
-51
China
5
-60
Australia
6
-66
Brazil
7
-28
Kazakhstan
8
-51
Argentina
9
-62
India
10
+236
Norway
11
-32
Mongolia
12
-60
Algeria
13
-62
Mexico
14
-68
D. R. Congo
15
-66
Saudi Arabia
16
-56
Iran
17
+53
Sweden
18
-63
Libya
19
-66
Sudan
20
-68
Indonesia
21
+70
Finland
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52 Comments
Quizmaster
+49
Level ∞
Nov 22, 2020
This quiz is based on original research. I took data from Natural Earth, projected it onto a Mercator map, and then used a script to compute the area.

Almost every country, except for those in the far north, appears smaller in the Mercator Projection than on an equal area map.

Antarctica, on the other hand, is more than 6 times larger on the Mercator Projection.

If we counted Greenland, it would appear as the 3rd largest country, ahead of the United States.

KingEureka
+22
Level 63
Nov 22, 2020
Good Quiz. Would love to see one about countries with the greatest / lowest % change.
zimny
+25
Level 71
Nov 22, 2020
Out of curiosity, what about Denmark? You know, Greenland...

Would it take first place?

joeythelemur
+9
Level 80
Nov 23, 2020
I have a Van der Grinten projection map as my dining room table, which is close to the Mercator. Russia dwarfs it by quite a lot, and Canada and USA are both larger as well. I suspect on the mercator that Russia would still be largest and Canada still bigger, largely due to them being fairly close in latitude. Greenland/Denmark probably come in third?
LBH
+7
Level 59
Sep 6, 2021
But Greenland is about the size of Africa on Mercator.
Charliezard
+6
Level 67
Jan 25, 2022
Yes, and Russia is EVEN BIGGER than that.
felixpaulsen
+3
Level 56
Sep 7, 2023
No. Africa is about 78% bigger than Russia.
HydratedMite
+11
Level 68
Oct 6, 2023
But this is Mercator, and Russia's in the north...
French2010
+5
Level 96
Nov 22, 2020
Not sure I'm understanding how the countries are ranked - absolute gain/loss of size irrespective of the % changes shown?
Djilas
+22
Level 86
Nov 22, 2020
They are ranked by size as it appears on Mercator projection. The percentages are just for orientation.
NQChien
+6
Level 68
May 31, 2025
I think the percentage here must be positive only. Because when we do Mercartor projection, wrapping a cylinder around Earth's equator, things on the Equator retain their sizes (growth = 0%), and for things away from Equator growth > 0%.
ThatOnePunk
+2
Level 70
Nov 22, 2020
Good quiz!
InfiniteBulk
+4
Level 73
Nov 22, 2020
Nice quiz! Too bad I only missed India, but I got 100% the next time :)
cuotak
+9
Level 70
Nov 22, 2020
Mercator Projection is the evil of all maps
parkave
+7
Level 56
Nov 29, 2020
How so? I think it does a pretty good job at representing relative shape. And if you think about it, in schools, you are mostly talking about your own country, so it makes sense to know what shape your country is. It sacrifices size, but honestly there is no good option, other than a plain old globe
cuotak
+5
Level 70
Nov 29, 2020
No it's not a good representation of country shapes either. Look at Canada or Russia for example.
rustwat
+10
Level 62
Dec 9, 2020
Well, it is difficult to draw a sphere on a flat surface.
Planety
+6
Level 24
Sep 8, 2021
I mean I don't know about you but like 90% of geography is about other countries in my countries education system
SirPhilippines
+8
Level 73
Dec 13, 2021
I believe the Mercator map was originally used by explorers, so going from one place to another shows a straight line, rather than a curved one
Koopa
+1
Level 88
Sep 6, 2022
That, and I believe Europeans were in no rush to eradicate it, given how much larger their world was depicted.
MarcellDAvis
+6
Level 80
Apr 26, 2023
Was it really? It mostly enlarges Canada and Russia. Most of Europe is at a similar latitude as Kazakhstan and Mongolia, which are already smaller on the Mercator projection. European colonialism can be blamed for many things, but I think with the maps, sticking with the unperfect system we still use today was a matter of convenience rather than malice.
Thomas1VL
+2
Level 67
Jan 29, 2023
It's a great map if you use it for what it was intended to be used for. It was made so explorers could go from one place to another in a straight line on a map, rather than a curved one, because such a course is much easier to follow on sea. Anyone using the projection for anything else just knows nothing about geography.
sjj93gg
+1
Level 55
Jun 1, 2025
The evil of all maps? It wasn't invented to give emphasis to some parts of the world over others on purpose: it was invented long before the European empires were a thing, in the early days of European exploration, and it was used to aid navigation. Where's the evil in that? It quickly became the most used projection in Europe, the default if you will. If Europeans had really wanted to use a projection to maximize the size of their empires, the French would have used something that emphasized Africa, and the British might have wanted to use something that emphasized India, Australia and Africa - so NOT Mercator.
Shadywyvern
+3
Level 85
Nov 22, 2020
Is this the least-taken featured quiz?
sumguy
+10
Level 87
Nov 23, 2020
I'm surprised that the US is underrepresented, given that Alaska is made to look like it's larger than the lower 48 states.
sumguy
+3
Level 87
Nov 23, 2020
This animation from Wikipedia shows almost all countries shrinking. The lower 48 shrink a bit, and Alaska is several times smaller.
TWM03
+2
Level 72
Nov 29, 2020
That would be because the animation is designed to make all the equatorial countries stay the same size.
Koopa
+1
Level 88
Sep 6, 2022
Contiguous...they are south, not low, and Hawaii is "lower" then them all.
fixypants
+1
Level 87
Nov 24, 2020
Fantastic!
sacheth9
+1
Level 65
Nov 29, 2020
Great!
jennraven
+1
Level 67
Nov 29, 2020
Thought of the last one with 1 sec to spare and didn't have time to type it in. 20/21 😩
TWM03
+5
Level 72
Nov 29, 2020
For anyone wondering why so many red countries appear on the list, the numbers would be changed a lot depending on where the map was cut off near the poles. Because the true Mercator projection is infinitely tall, and all countries occupy a finite space on it, every country would shrink by 100% if the projection was cut off at 90° N/S.
lilpick
+1
Level 61
Feb 23, 2021
I thought I typed Algeria but apparently not :)

19/20

bruhbruhbro
+1
Level 25
Feb 24, 2021
who missed Russia? and the USA? and china?
HydratedMite
+2
Level 68
Oct 6, 2023
1%, 2%, and 4% of people
IkeLek
+2
Level 66
Feb 13, 2022
If this doesn't count autonomous regions, then why is china so high on the list? Isn't it like half autonomous regions?
Wistful
+5
Level 72
Feb 19, 2024
Their "autonomous regions" aren't very autonomous. It's meant to exclude territories, namely Greenland.
QuizzerBros
+1
Level 69
Mar 29, 2022
Nice!
THTB
+2
Level 46
Dec 8, 2023
greenland in all caps, nice
ProfessorTaco567
+2
Level 46
Jan 12, 2024
I bet Norwegians love the Mercator projection.
Isfjella
+2
Level 75
May 31, 2025
It's surprisingly uncommon! As it is, the country's so long (and so many people live in the south) that quite a lot of maps even split the country into two, mercator makes the problem even worse. It's certainly not unheard of to see maps in mercator, but I don't observe any special fondness of the projection :)
Koyamari
+3
Level 58
Feb 18, 2024
Surprising how 3 Scandinavian countries turn out to be massive like the others!
Woozie121
+2
Level 52
Feb 20, 2024
I knew Norway looked bigger but holy cow, that is way bigger.
vittoriao
+1
Level 74
Feb 18, 2024
Really this shows no regional or political advantage and most of the countries appear smaller
Woozie121
+1
Level 52
Feb 20, 2024
HOW DID I MISS BRAZIL!!! Only one missed.
EverettHater
+2
Level 48
May 31, 2025
Why did Denmark/greenland not count? That’s a very large piece of land that just wasn’t considered
CrypticMessage
+1
Level 53
May 31, 2025
According to the caveats, this quiz "Does not include autonomous regions such as GREENLAND!"
Sifhraven
+2
Level 76
Jun 1, 2025
yes that is why they asked the question.
thatpoltergeist
+1
Level 54
May 31, 2025
I didn't read the title and assumed it was a quiz about which countries size changed the most based on the projection. That would be a fun quiz though.
amgine
+1
Level 67
Jun 1, 2025
In other words, all the largest countries plus the three big Nordic countries
ausforming
+1
Level 57
Jun 2, 2025
I was surprised by the place of Norway. Had Sweden first and as Sweden is so much bigger than Norway, but on the same latitude, it took some time to try Norway (probably Svalbard - which has a special status - makes the difference)
Treev
+1
Level 69
Apr 20, 2026
Are you using different scalings for the equal area map and the mercator projection? If you had a sinusoidal projection (which maintains area) and a mercator projection that had the same scaling at the equator, then every country would be strictly larger on the mercator prrojection.
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