How big is Ireland really?

True size vs the map

Both drawn at the same scale. The map keeps shapes but swells everything away from the equator.

Ireland in numbers

• Ireland is the 121st largest of the 196 countries and territories in Globegami.
• On the map Ireland looks bigger than Cambodia, but Cambodia is really 2.6 times larger.
• Countries of about the same true size: Georgia (69,700 km²), Sierra Leone (71,740 km²), Panama (74,177 km²).
• The United Kingdom is 3.5 times the size of Ireland.

Why the map gets Ireland wrong

Ireland lies around 53°N. A Mercator map stretches distances there by about 1.67 times in every direction, so areas come out roughly 2.8 times too big near its middle. Most web maps use this projection because it keeps angles and shapes right for navigation, not because it shows sizes fairly.

In Globegami you can drag a copy of Ireland anywhere on Earth: it keeps its true size and grows or shrinks on the map as it moves, and you can fold the map back into a globe.