How big is Africa really? The numbers your school map never showed you
Updated 8 September 2026. All country areas are total area — land plus inland water (CIA World Factbook figures via mledoze/countries), except Africa 30,370,000 km² (Africa No Filter), Europe (conventional continent), England 130,279 km² (ONS), the United Kingdom 243,610 km², and Greenland 2,166,086 km² including the ice sheet. France is metropolitan France; Norway excludes Svalbard. Ratios rounded to one decimal.
Africa covers 30.37 million square kilometres. You could fit the United States (9.37m), China (9.71m) and India (3.29m) inside it and still have 8 million km² left over — more than the whole of Australia. On the Mercator map used in most classrooms since the 16th century, none of that is visible: Greenland, at 2.17 million km², looks about the same size as a continent 14 times larger.
In September 2026 the UN General Assembly voted 164–1 to encourage the world to switch to the Equal Earth projection, which shows land at its true relative size. Read our report on the vote. This page is our permanent record of what that actually looks like — country by country.
AllInZimbabwe · Africa at true size
How big is your country really?
1.6×
drawn to scale — real outlines, real areas
On the Mercator map still on most classroom walls, anything near the equator is drawn smaller than it is and anything far from it larger. This is what the UN voted to fix.
Outlines are real country borders drawn from Natural Earth data (public domain), reprojected to an equal-area projection and scaled so the areas you see are the areas quoted. Figures are total area, land plus inland water (CIA World Factbook via mledoze/countries), except: Africa 30,370,000 km² (Africa No Filter); Europe 10,180,000 km² (conventional continent, drawn to the Urals); England 130,279 km² (ONS); United Kingdom 243,610 km²; Greenland 2,166,086 km² including the ice sheet. France is metropolitan France; Norway excludes Svalbard; Morocco is drawn as Natural Earth maps it, including Western Sahara; Seychelles and Mauritius show their main islands only. The UN General Assembly endorsed the Equal Earth projection on 4 September 2026 (164–1).
Zimbabwe at true size
| Area (km²) | Zimbabwe is… | |
|---|---|---|
| Zimbabwe | 390,757 | — |
| United Kingdom | 243,610 | 1.6× bigger |
| Japan | 377,930 | slightly bigger |
| Germany | 357,114 | slightly bigger |
| Italy | 301,336 | 1.3× bigger |
| Poland | 312,679 | 1.2× bigger |
Zimbabwe is larger than Japan, Germany, Italy or Poland, and more than half as big again as the UK. On Mercator, sitting between the Tropic of Capricorn and the equator, it is drawn small; Britain, far to the north, is drawn large.
Africa’s countries next to Europe’s
| African country | Area (km²) | Compared with | Area (km²) | Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Algeria | 2,381,741 | France (incl. overseas) | 551,695 | 4.3× |
| DR Congo | 2,344,858 | Germany | 357,114 | 6.6× |
| Sudan | 1,886,068 | Spain | 505,992 | 3.7× |
| Libya | 1,759,540 | Italy | 301,336 | 5.8× |
| Chad | 1,284,000 | Germany | 357,114 | 3.6× |
| Angola | 1,246,700 | Spain | 505,992 | 2.5× |
| Mali | 1,240,192 | Germany | 357,114 | 3.5× |
| South Africa | 1,221,037 | United Kingdom | 243,610 | 5.0× |
| Ethiopia | 1,104,300 | Poland | 312,679 | 3.5× |
| Egypt | 1,002,450 | Spain | 505,992 | 2.0× |
| Tanzania | 945,087 | Germany | 357,114 | 2.6× |
| Nigeria | 923,768 | United Kingdom | 243,610 | 3.8× |
| Namibia | 825,615 | Germany | 357,114 | 2.3× |
| Mozambique | 801,590 | United Kingdom | 243,610 | 3.3× |
| Zambia | 752,612 | United Kingdom | 243,610 | 3.1× |
| Somalia | 637,657 | Norway | 323,802 | 2.0× |
| Kenya | 580,367 | Norway | 323,802 | 1.8× |
| Madagascar | 587,041 | Sweden | 450,295 | 1.3× |
| Botswana | 582,000 | Spain | 505,992 | 1.2× |
| Cameroon | 475,442 | Sweden | 450,295 | 1.1× |
| Morocco | 446,550 | Germany | 357,114 | 1.3× |
| Zimbabwe | 390,757 | United Kingdom | 243,610 | 1.6× |
| Uganda | 241,550 | United Kingdom | 243,610 | about the same |
| Ghana | 238,533 | United Kingdom | 243,610 | about the same |
| Senegal | 196,722 | Greece | 131,990 | 1.5× |
| Malawi | 118,484 | Portugal | 92,090 | 1.3× |
| Togo | 56,785 | Belgium | 30,528 | 1.9× |
Two of the surprises: Ghana and Uganda are each almost exactly the size of the United Kingdom. Togo — the country that sponsored the UN resolution — is nearly twice the size of Belgium.
Why the old map lies
Gerardus Mercator drew his projection in 1569 for sailors. It keeps compass bearings straight, which is exactly what a navigator needs, and it does so by stretching the map more and more the further you go from the equator. Land near the poles balloons; land near the equator — which is most of Africa and South America — is squeezed. It was never meant to be a picture of how big places are. It became one anyway, because it was printed on the walls of every school in the world.
What Equal Earth is
Equal Earth is an equal-area projection published in 2018 by Bojan Šavrič (Esri), Tom Patterson (US National Park Service) and Bernhard Jenny (Monash University). Every square centimetre on the map represents the same area on the ground. Continents keep a familiar shape, so it looks like a “normal” world map — just an honest one. Patterson’s Equal Earth political and physical wall maps are public domain: anyone can download, print and use them, including schools.
What the UN vote does — and doesn’t — do
On 4 September 2026 the General Assembly adopted the Togo-led, African Union-backed “Correct the Map” resolution with 164 votes in favour. The United States voted against; six countries abstained. The resolution encourages governments, schools, media and international institutions to adopt equal-area maps such as Equal Earth. It is not binding and does not ban Mercator. Its power is reputational: institutions that keep the old map now have to explain why.
What you can do
- Parents: ask your child’s school which projection is on the wall and in the textbook. Point them to the free Equal Earth wall map.
- Teachers: AiZ’s classroom pack is on the way. Until it lands, the Equal Earth wall maps are public domain: download and print one for your classroom free of charge at equal-earth.com.
- Everyone: put the real map on your wall. The full-resolution Equal Earth files are free to download and print at equal-earth.com. AiZ’s own “Zimbabwe is bigger than Britain” print will be linked here as soon as it goes on sale.
Frequently asked questions
Is Africa bigger than Greenland? Yes — about 14 times bigger. Africa is 30.37 million km²; Greenland is about 2.17 million km².
Is Zimbabwe bigger than the UK? Yes. Zimbabwe is 390,757 km²; the UK is 243,610 km². Zimbabwe is 1.6 times the size of the UK.
Did the UN ban the Mercator map? No. The resolution encourages the use of equal-area projections such as Equal Earth. It is not legally binding.
Which countries voted against the new map? Only the United States voted against. Serbia, Estonia, Georgia, Lithuania, Moldova and Ukraine abstained.
Can I download the Equal Earth map for free? Yes. Tom Patterson’s Equal Earth political and physical wall maps are public domain and available at equal-earth.com.
