Is Africa smaller on maps?

Is Africa smaller on maps? On the Mercator map, Africa – sitting on the equator, reasonably undistorted – is left looking much smaller than it really is. The distortion is largest near the poles: Greenland,

Is Africa smaller on maps?

On the Mercator map, Africa – sitting on the equator, reasonably undistorted – is left looking much smaller than it really is. The distortion is largest near the poles: Greenland, which looks about the same size as the whole of Africa on the Mercator, is a classic example.

Why is Africa so small on maps?

The world map you are probably familiar with is called the Mercator projection (below), which was developed all the way back in 1569 and greatly distorts the relative areas of land masses. It makes Africa look tiny, and Greenland and Russia appear huge.

Is Africa really bigger than Asia?

And he seems to have missed the memo that Africa is roughly 11.6 million square miles — making its surface area about five-and-a-half million square miles smaller than Asia, which takes up more than 17 million. Altogether, the world’s seven continents make up roughly 57.5 million square miles of land.

Is Australia bigger than Africa?

Africa is 3.93 times as big as Australia At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth’s total surface area and 20% of its land area.

Why do they lie about the size of Africa?

It’s because most maps use the Mercator Projection. On it, Greenland looks to be the same size as Africa. In reality, Africa is actually 14 times larger. Replicating the globe onto a flat surface distorts the sizes of the countries yet many have no idea.

How big is Africa actually?

30.37 million km²
Africa/Area

What can you say about the size of Africa?

The continent of Africa is larger than the United States, China and Brazil combined. At 30.2 million square kilometers, its land mass covers 20.4 percent of the earth’s total land area. The population of Africa numbers 1 billion, while the North American continent is home to 528 million souls.

What are the top 3 largest continents?

The continents are, from largest to smallest: Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia.

Is Nigeria bigger than South Africa?

South Africa is about 1.3 times bigger than Nigeria. Nigeria is approximately 923,768 sq km, while South Africa is approximately 1,219,090 sq km, making South Africa 32% larger than Nigeria.

Which country is bigger South Africa or Australia?

Australia is about 6 times bigger than South Africa. South Africa is approximately 1,219,090 sq km, while Australia is approximately 7,741,220 sq km, making Australia 535% larger than South Africa. Meanwhile, the population of South Africa is ~56.5 million people (31.0 million fewer people live in Australia).

Is Africa drawn to scale?