How big is Sweden really?
Sweden covers 447,425 km² (173,000 sq mi). On the usual world map (the Mercator projection) it is drawn about 4.9 times bigger than it really is.
See Sweden 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.
Sweden in numbers
- Sweden is the 58th largest of the 196 countries and territories in Globegami.
- On the map Sweden looks bigger than Indonesia, but Indonesia is really 4.3 times larger.
- Countries of about the same true size: Uzbekistan (448,978 km²), Yemen (455,503 km²), Iraq (437,072 km²).
- Sweden is 1.85 times the size of the United Kingdom.
Why the map gets Sweden wrong
Sweden lies around 62°N. A Mercator map stretches distances there by about 2.2 times in every direction, so areas come out roughly 4.7 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 Sweden 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.
Compare Sweden
Areas: official totals including inland water (UN Statistics Division via Wikidata). Outlines: Natural Earth. How Globegami works