The world’s true sizes

Move countries and compare projections

Select a country in the map and move its translucent copy toward the equator. Observe how its outline changes with latitude. Switch to Equal Earth to compare an equal-area projection.

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Three observations to try

Copies are rotated on the sphere before projection. Moving a copy does not change the country’s actual spherical area.

1. Move Greenland toward the equator and compare its apparent size.
2. Switch the same country between Mercator and Equal Earth, observing shape and area separately.
3. Change overlay opacity and describe where outlines agree or differ.

Why do high latitudes look larger?

For a spherical Mercator projection, local length scale at latitude φ is 1/cosφ and local area scale is 1/cos²φ. At 60°, lengths are roughly doubled and tiny areas quadrupled. This is local scale, not a claim that an entire large country is uniformly enlarged four times.

Mercator preserves local angles but not area. Equal Earth preserves area while changing shapes and angles. Ask what a map is intended to compare rather than which projection is simply correct.

Connect the map with the game

Larger than Japan uses recorded total area, not apparent map size. Connect flags with location and actual size as well as color and pattern.

Scope and limitations

The simulator uses Natural Earth boundaries, whose country and territory divisions do not exactly match the game’s 207 entries. It expresses no position on sovereignty. Small islands and borders are simplified. Mercator is clipped near the poles, and the simulator explains when comparison is unavailable.

Sources

• USGS: map projections and distortion
• Natural Earth: public-domain data terms