Why Greenland Looks So Big: A Quick Guide to Map Distortion

On many maps, Greenland looks as big as Africa. In reality, Africa dwarfs it. The culprit is projection distortion—especially on Mercator-family maps that expand areas away from the equator.

What Mercator preserves—and what it stretches

Mercator preserves angles (great for navigation) but blows up area toward the poles. By 60°N, scale is roughly 2×; by 80°N, nearly 6×. Because Greenland sits at high latitudes, its "map size" feels much larger than its real size.

Greenland vs Africa overlay captured from https://truesize.world

See it on a true size map

Open our Interactive Map and add Greenland and Africa. Drag, rotate, and adjust opacity. Watch the center-latitude and exaggeration ratio—a live reminder that real size and "map size" are not the same.

More pairs to try:

Greenland vs Australia

Europe vs Australia

Borneo vs New Guinea (islands)

Pacific Ocean vs Atlantic Ocean (oceans)

London vs New York, Shanghai vs Tokyo, Singapore vs Hong Kong (cities)

Takeaway

No single projection is perfect. A true size map with interactive overlays makes the trade-offs tangible—so anyone can see the real size of countries, the real size of oceans and lakes, the real size of islands, and the true size of cities.