Russia on five projections
Russia covers 16,925,758 km² of ground. Mercator draws it 4.90 times over. Area and shape readings on all five projections, each one measured.
The largest country, and the most inflated large one
Russia covers 16,925,758 km² and was already the largest country. Its anchor sits at 66.1° N, so Mercator inflates it a further 4.90 times. An enormous thing drawn absurdly: on that map it takes more space than Africa and South America together.
Why the anchor is in Siberia
Russia crosses the antimeridian, so the centre of its bounding box lands in the Atlantic - nowhere near any part of it. This site uses the spherical centroid, `d3.geoCentroid`, which stays correct across the seam and puts the anchor at 66.1° N, 95.8° E in central Siberia. That is where a drag handle belongs.
This object
- True area
- 16,925,758 km²
- Anchor latitude
- 66.1° N
- Angular radius
- 39.2°
- Draggable latitude range
- -85.1° … 69.9°
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 | 2.14 | 2.46 |
| Mercator | 4.90 | 1.00 constant |
| Natural Earth | 1.55 | 2.19 |
| Equal Earth | 1.00 constant | 2.72 |
| Gall-Peters | 1.00 constant | 3.04 |
Mercator inflates it most, 4.90 times over. Gall-Peters stretches it most: its long axis is 3.04 times its short one.
The same size, drawn otherwise
Nothing in the catalogue is close to Russia's area at a far enough latitude to be worth the comparison.
Bigger than the map admits
Mercator draws nothing larger than Russia 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 Russia across the latitude bands and the readout follows.