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After Seeing This Map With The Actual Size Of Every Country, You’ll Never Look At The World The Same

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Probably most of us are familiar with the famous saying ‘my whole life was a lie,’ and we hate to tell you that, but it most likely was when it comes to the world map as we know it. Let’s just jump ahead and say there are no conspiracy theories here. It’s just not that simple laying out a globe on a flat piece of paper as in the Mercator map that we are all so familiar with. Good thing this climate data scientist took up the task of educating the masses on country size comparison and put up a map projection that shows real sizes together with those shown in regular maps. Even though his usual routines consist of analyzing various climate data and tracking climate change, geography is something tied closely together with his field of work. And if you follow him on social media, you will notice he has a genuine concern for environment and education, constantly filling his feed with various informational posts and interesting facts. In this particular map, he marked the true objects in the darker color and put them against a regular map so you can see the difference. Take a look at each continent on the planet and one extra treat – a supposedly huge island. Scroll down to see the true sized world map for yourself!

More info: Neil Kaye

World Map With True Country Size And Shape

After Seeing This Map With The Actual Size Of Every Country, You'll Never Look At The World The Same

Image credits: Neil Kaye

North America

After Seeing This Map With The Actual Size Of Every Country, You'll Never Look At The World The Same

Image credits: Neil Kaye

Russia

After Seeing This Map With The Actual Size Of Every Country, You'll Never Look At The World The Same

Image credits: Neil Kaye

Europe And Asia

After Seeing This Map With The Actual Size Of Every Country, You'll Never Look At The World The Same

Image credits: Neil Kaye

Africa

After Seeing This Map With The Actual Size Of Every Country, You'll Never Look At The World The Same

Image credits: Neil Kaye

Antarctica

After Seeing This Map With The Actual Size Of Every Country, You'll Never Look At The World The Same

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Image credits: Neil Kaye

South America

After Seeing This Map With The Actual Size Of Every Country, You'll Never Look At The World The Same

Image credits: Neil Kaye

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Greenland

After Seeing This Map With The Actual Size Of Every Country, You'll Never Look At The World The Same

Image credits: Neil Kaye

Australia

After Seeing This Map With The Actual Size Of Every Country, You'll Never Look At The World The Same

Image credits: Neil Kaye

162Kviews

Judita K

Incurable book lover and thinker, Marvel geek and social media enthusiast with a Bachelor's Degree In Creative Communication. Will write everything about anything as long as it brings joy to pandas all over the world.

Incurable book lover and thinker, Marvel geek and social media enthusiast with a Bachelor's Degree In Creative Communication. Will write everything about anything as long as it brings joy to pandas all over the world.

What do you think ?

Jeppe Larsen 5 years ago

What a weird and uninformative article. There are many map projections, and this is just the most common one, called the Mercator projection. There is no correct way to turn a sphere into a rectangle.

98points

pebs 5 years ago

Exactly. I really don't see the point of this post. It's like having discovered hot water, as we say in Italy.

17points

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Podunkus 5 years ago (edited)

More precisely, there is no way to project a sphere onto a plane WITHOUT MISLEADING DISTORTION, and that is the heart of the matter. The Mercator projection is ignorant b******t. It was published way back in *1569!!!* to illustrate known shipping lanes at the time. It was never intended as a map of the Earth because who knew? Do yourself a favor and walk into an office supply store or local library and stare at a GLOBE or satellite photos from space to educate yourself on the relative sizes of earth’s land masses and how TINY our own countries actually are. For example and comparison, did you know kilometer for kilometer how really, REALLY vast the continent of Africa is? original-1.jpg

7points

Remy López Cáceres 4 years ago

In this map there is not only a mercator projection, in darker shapes you get a kind of Peter projection too I mean a real proportional size that actually exists. Imagine that Spain is 5 km around and France another 5, you musn't draw a 10 km Spain and 2 km France.

0points

Remy López Cáceres 4 years ago

This comment has been deleted.

0points

Remy López Cáceres 4 years ago

This comment has been deleted.

0points

Remy López Cáceres 4 years ago

This comment has been deleted.

0points

Stannous Flouride 5 years ago

When I was a kid in about the 3rd grade (1960-61) one of the cardboard globes in our classroom got damaged and was going to be discarded. I took it home and cut out the countries as best I could (thick cardboard, kids' scissors) and learned the same thing. I find it hard to fathom that anyone who has completed elementary school would be surprised to learn that the Mercator Projection grossly distorted the dimensions of nations.

22points

Poul Winther Knudsen 5 years ago

Well, I know people of higher education actually believing the earth is flat!

10points

Load More Replies...

Candice Dodson-Gates 5 years ago

Am I missing some obvious information. Which colour is the true representation and which colour is the commonly understood representation. Is it saying they are bigger or smaller? It's not clear at all!

19points

Bunzilla 5 years ago

The darker colour shows the true proportions, the pale colour shows how they're represented on our world maps.

15points

Load More Replies...

mike smith 5 years ago

Smaller one is the "true" one the bigger is the common

4points

Shireen 5 years ago

Yes. "In this particular map, he marked the true objects in the darker color and put them against a regular map so you can see the difference."

0points

Wyndmere 5 years ago (edited)

Yeah, what She asked. It is not clear.

-1point

Arkeen 5 years ago (edited)

As said above, there cannot be any "true" representation of a sphere on a rectangle. The lighter parts represent the Mercator projection (probabaly the most common, distort the areas but preserve the correct shapes). The darker parts are local projections, which DO NOT preserve shapes and size, yeah, this article is a fraud. But the smaller the country, the more accurate they are, especially regarding to the global mercator projection. Their main issue is that they disconnect countries borders, adding spaces in between that DO NOT exist. Keep in mind that none of them is true, they both distort space in there own way. The only "true" map is a globe, all projections distort space. You can see a bunch of existing projections here : https://www.jasondavies.com/maps/transition/ (From a mapmaker who is starting to get pissed of reading such misleading articles)

-3points

szatan667 5 years ago

This comment is hidden. Click here to view.

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Jeppe Larsen 5 years ago

What a weird and uninformative article. There are many map projections, and this is just the most common one, called the Mercator projection. There is no correct way to turn a sphere into a rectangle.

98points

pebs 5 years ago

Exactly. I really don't see the point of this post. It's like having discovered hot water, as we say in Italy.

17points

Load More Replies...

Podunkus 5 years ago (edited)

More precisely, there is no way to project a sphere onto a plane WITHOUT MISLEADING DISTORTION, and that is the heart of the matter. The Mercator projection is ignorant b******t. It was published way back in *1569!!!* to illustrate known shipping lanes at the time. It was never intended as a map of the Earth because who knew? Do yourself a favor and walk into an office supply store or local library and stare at a GLOBE or satellite photos from space to educate yourself on the relative sizes of earth’s land masses and how TINY our own countries actually are. For example and comparison, did you know kilometer for kilometer how really, REALLY vast the continent of Africa is? original-1.jpg

7points

Remy López Cáceres 4 years ago

In this map there is not only a mercator projection, in darker shapes you get a kind of Peter projection too I mean a real proportional size that actually exists. Imagine that Spain is 5 km around and France another 5, you musn't draw a 10 km Spain and 2 km France.

0points

Remy López Cáceres 4 years ago

This comment has been deleted.

0points

Remy López Cáceres 4 years ago

This comment has been deleted.

0points

Remy López Cáceres 4 years ago

This comment has been deleted.

0points

Stannous Flouride 5 years ago

When I was a kid in about the 3rd grade (1960-61) one of the cardboard globes in our classroom got damaged and was going to be discarded. I took it home and cut out the countries as best I could (thick cardboard, kids' scissors) and learned the same thing. I find it hard to fathom that anyone who has completed elementary school would be surprised to learn that the Mercator Projection grossly distorted the dimensions of nations.

22points

Poul Winther Knudsen 5 years ago

Well, I know people of higher education actually believing the earth is flat!

10points

Load More Replies...

Candice Dodson-Gates 5 years ago

Am I missing some obvious information. Which colour is the true representation and which colour is the commonly understood representation. Is it saying they are bigger or smaller? It's not clear at all!

19points

Bunzilla 5 years ago

The darker colour shows the true proportions, the pale colour shows how they're represented on our world maps.

15points

Load More Replies...

mike smith 5 years ago

Smaller one is the "true" one the bigger is the common

4points

Shireen 5 years ago

Yes. "In this particular map, he marked the true objects in the darker color and put them against a regular map so you can see the difference."

0points

Wyndmere 5 years ago (edited)

Yeah, what She asked. It is not clear.

-1point

Arkeen 5 years ago (edited)

As said above, there cannot be any "true" representation of a sphere on a rectangle. The lighter parts represent the Mercator projection (probabaly the most common, distort the areas but preserve the correct shapes). The darker parts are local projections, which DO NOT preserve shapes and size, yeah, this article is a fraud. But the smaller the country, the more accurate they are, especially regarding to the global mercator projection. Their main issue is that they disconnect countries borders, adding spaces in between that DO NOT exist. Keep in mind that none of them is true, they both distort space in there own way. The only "true" map is a globe, all projections distort space. You can see a bunch of existing projections here : https://www.jasondavies.com/maps/transition/ (From a mapmaker who is starting to get pissed of reading such misleading articles)

-3points

szatan667 5 years ago

This comment is hidden. Click here to view.

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