India on five projections
India covers 3,150,360 km² of ground. Mercator draws it 1.19 times over. Area and shape readings on all five projections, each one measured.
A large country the map barely touches
India covers 3,150,360 km², anchored at 22.8° N. Mercator inflates it just 1.19 times and all five projections read within 1.1 on area. It is big enough to matter and close enough to the equator to be one of the few large countries that every projection treats roughly honestly.
That is why it gets used as a ruler. "How many Indias fit in Canada" is a meaningful question because the India end of it does not lie.
Gall-Peters stretches its shape 1.70 times
A perfect 1.00 on area, 1.70 on shape. Low latitudes are where a cylindrical equal-area projection collects: holding the area means pulling equatorial land north-south. Equal Earth gives 1.36 and Mercator 1.00 - Mercator does not touch India's shape at all, it only inflates the area by 19 percent. No map gets India entirely right.
This object
- True area
- 3,150,360 km²
- Anchor latitude
- 22.8° N
- Angular radius
- 16.9°
- Draggable latitude range
- -70.6° … 72.6°
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 | 1.09 | 1.08 |
| Mercator | 1.19 | 1.00 constant |
| Natural Earth | 1.07 | 1.20 |
| Equal Earth | 1.00 constant | 1.36 |
| Gall-Peters | 1.00 constant | 1.70 |
Mercator inflates it most, 1.19 times over. Gall-Peters stretches it most: its long axis is 1.70 times its short one.
The same size, drawn otherwise
Nothing in the catalogue is close to India's area at a far enough latitude to be worth the comparison.
Bigger than the map admits
Mercator draws nothing larger than India 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 India across the latitude bands and the readout follows.