A different perspective
See the world.
Explore a globe. Unfold your perspective with Equal Earth, a map that gives every place its fair share of space.
≈14× Africa’s area compared with Greenland. Not what Mercator might have you think.
Find a country or territory
⌕
Or browse the complete map directory
Choose a country or territory
Click a country on the map or globe. Very small places are easier to reach through the directory.
Mapped area, approximate
Population estimate
Map entity type
Dataset sovereignty field
Compare its size
Fly here
Areas are calculated from generalized boundaries on a sphere, not official national area statistics. Population estimates are dated, not live.
02 / The distortion lens
What is your
Every gold outline begins as a spherical circle with the same 4° angular radius. Compare what different views do to it.
Inspect a view
Equal Earth · area preserved
Mercator · angles preserved locally
3D globe · perspective foreshortening
Same surface area before projection
On Equal Earth, circle shapes change but their projected areas remain equal.
On Mercator, areas inflate toward the poles. This view is clipped at approximately ±85.05° latitude; the actual poles are infinitely far away.
These finite circles are an intuitive distortion demonstration, rather than infinitesimal Tissot indicatrices.
A map with a purpose
A whole world.
Equal Earth is an equal-area, pseudocylindrical world-map projection designed in 2018 by Bojan Šavrič, Tom Patterson, and Bernhard Jenny.
Inspired by Robinson’s balanced appearance, it preserves relative areas. Africa occupies about fourteen times the map area of Greenland, just as it does on Earth.
A globe is not an Equal Earth projection
A globe models a spherical Earth. Its visible surface is foreshortened near the edge when rendered on your screen. Switch to the flat Equal Earth view to make on-screen area comparisons.
No flat world map can simultaneously preserve area, shape, distance, and direction. Equal Earth chooses area, while retaining an approachable world-map outline.
03 / Move the map’s seam
There is no compulsory center
In either flat view, use the central-meridian slider below the map. Put the Pacific, Africa, or your own home at the center. The seam moves; Equal Earth’s area-preserving property does not.
Try a Pacific-centered map
About this explorer and its data
This is an independent interactive explorer, not a reproduction of the Equal Earth Wall Map. It uses Natural Earth’s generalized 1:50 million country boundaries and associated attributes.
The directory covers the entities provided by that dataset, including countries, territories, and disputed areas. Tiny places may require directory selection. Labels are collision-managed; zoom in or select a place to reveal its name.
Boundaries and sovereignty labels reflect the source dataset and do not express an endorsement. Continent comparisons group entities using Natural Earth’s continent field.
The spherical Equal Earth implementation comes from D3 Geo. The globe is a native WebGL rendering of a mathematically defined 3D sphere, not satellite imagery or terrain.
Projection references and wall-map sources
Sources named by the wall-map page
These are attributed as described by that page. Their underlying content has not been independently reviewed for this explorer; some historical URLs may redirect or no longer work.
Runtime data and library
Controls and accessibility
Drag to rotate the globe or pan a map. Scroll or pinch to zoom. Use +, −, and reset on the right. When the map canvas is focused, arrow keys move the view, +/− zoom, and Home resets.
Country search, its result buttons, and the complete directory provide keyboard alternatives to clicking the canvas. Reduced-motion preferences are respected.