Canada on five projections
Canada covers 9,986,087 km² of ground. Mercator draws it 5.21 times over. Area and shape readings on all five projections, each one measured.
5.21 times
Canada covers 9,986,087 km², anchored at 60.5° N, and Mercator draws it 5.21 times over. The second largest country, inflated until it reads larger than Africa - which is three times its true size.
The United States is 95 percent of it
The United States covers 9,493,296 km², 0.951 of Canada - under 5 percent apart. But its anchor is at 44.8° N, where Mercator inflates it only 2.30 times. Two neighbours on one continent, 16 degrees of latitude between them, drawn more than twice as differently.
This object
- True area
- 9,986,087 km²
- Anchor latitude
- 60.5° N
- Angular radius
- 28.5°
- Draggable latitude range
- -73.5° … 62.5°
On five projections
Each number is measured against its own projection's equator, not against another projection. These five rows do not share an axis - they are five answers to the same question: what did this map give up to lay this place flat?
| Projection | Area distortion | Shape distortion |
|---|---|---|
| Equirectangular | 2.12 | 2.03 |
| Mercator | 5.21 | 1.00 constant |
| Natural Earth | 1.53 | 1.89 |
| Equal Earth | 1.00 constant | 2.24 |
| Gall-Peters | 1.00 constant | 2.06 |
Mercator inflates it most, 5.21 times over. Equal Earth stretches it most: its long axis is 2.24 times its short one.
The same size, drawn otherwise
These are within 5 percent of Canada's true area, and sit at a very different latitude. It is a fact about the Earth, and it is interesting because most projections disagree with it.
- United States: United States covers 9,493,296 km²; this covers 9,986,087. They sit 16 degrees apart in latitude, and Mercator draws one 2.08 times the other.
Bigger than the map admits
Mercator draws nothing larger than Canada smaller than it.
On an equal-area projection this section is empty, for every object there is. An equal-area map draws in proportion to true area, so it cannot draw a larger thing smaller. That is a definition, not a coincidence.
Open it in the tool
Drag Canada across the latitude bands and the readout follows.