Mercator = × Equal Earth
Equal Earth Viewer compares the true relative areas of countries with their appearance on a Mercator map. Click or tap a country, or search for a place, to select it.
The teal outline shows the country on Equal Earth. The purple shadow shows its Mercator shape, centered over the country. Both projections use the same area scale at the equator; the shadow keeps the enlargement caused by the country's latitude. It is a comparison overlay, not a geographic boundary.
Mercator makes countries nearer the poles appear much larger. Try Greenland, Sweden or Canada, then compare a country near the equator. The displayed multiplier compares the projected areas of the two shapes.
Mercator cannot show the poles. Shadows are clipped at about 85 degrees latitude, so polar comparisons show only the visible portion. Countries crossing the date line are kept together in the Mercator shadow.
For the United States, Norway, and France, detached regions such as Alaska, Svalbard, Corsica, and French Guiana have separately centered shadows so the mainland stays aligned. Each region keeps its Mercator size; the multiplier still compares the whole country.
Drag the map to pan and scroll or pinch to zoom. The selected country's name appears in the info box. Click or tap the same country again to deselect it, or select another country to replace the comparison. Options lets you change the map style or hide the shadow and info box. Download saves the map with the comparison.
The viewer shares its map engine with Equal Earth World Map, where you can create maps with multiple country labels and markers.
Equal Earth is an equal-area projection developed by Bojan Šavrič, Tom Patterson and Bernhard Jenny. Learn about Equal Earth. Projection reference.
Contact information: markandmap@gmail.com