How big is Slovakia really?
Slovakia covers 49,034 km² (18,900 sq mi). On the usual world map (the Mercator projection) it is drawn about 2.3 times bigger than it really is.
See Slovakia at its true size on the map →True size vs the map
Both drawn at the same scale. The map keeps shapes but swells everything away from the equator.
Slovakia in numbers
- Slovakia is the 130th largest of the 196 countries and territories in Globegami.
- On the map Slovakia looks bigger than Western Sahara, but Western Sahara is really 1.85 times larger.
- Countries of about the same true size: Dominican Republic (48,671 km²), Costa Rica (51,180 km²), Bosnia and Herzegovina (51,209 km²).
- The United Kingdom is 4.9 times the size of Slovakia.
Why the map gets Slovakia wrong
Slovakia lies around 49°N. A Mercator map stretches distances there by about 1.52 times in every direction, so areas come out roughly 2.3 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 Slovakia 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.
Areas: official totals including inland water (UN Statistics Division via Wikidata). Outlines: Natural Earth. How Globegami works