Greenland, home to the world’s second-largest ice body, often appears deceptively large on standard world maps. This leads to the question: How Big Is Greenland Compared To North America, or other landmasses? This article explores Greenland’s true size, the reasons behind map distortions, and why certain projections are preferred for different purposes.
While Greenland’s area is approximately 2 million square kilometers, this number lacks context for most people. Using a tool like The True Size, we can visually compare Greenland to other countries and continents. Surprisingly, Greenland is only slightly larger than the combined area of eleven European countries: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Portugal, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.
Putting Greenland’s Size into Perspective
Comparing Greenland to other large landmasses provides further clarity:
- Greenland vs. Democratic Republic of Congo: Greenland is roughly the same size as the Democratic Republic of Congo.
- Greenland vs. India: Greenland could fit inside India approximately 1.4 times.
- Greenland vs. United States: Greenland is significantly smaller than the United States, fitting into it about 4.2 times.
- Greenland vs. Australia: Greenland could fit inside Australia roughly 3.5 times.
These comparisons demonstrate that while Greenland is a large island, its size is often exaggerated on common world maps, particularly those using the Mercator projection.
Why Maps Distort Reality: The Mercator Projection
Accurately representing a spherical Earth on a flat map requires projections, which inevitably introduce distortions. Conformal projections preserve shapes and angles at the expense of size accuracy, while equal-area projections maintain size accuracy but distort shapes. The widely used Mercator projection falls into the former category.
The Mercator projection projects the Earth’s surface onto a cylinder, stretching landmasses near the poles. This explains why Greenland appears disproportionately large compared to its actual size relative to landmasses closer to the equator.
The Mercator Projection: Local Accuracy vs. Global Distortion
Despite its distortions, the Mercator projection remains popular, particularly for online mapping services like Google Maps. This is because its preservation of angles and shapes is crucial for local navigation. At city-level scales, the distortions are minimal, ensuring that streets and routes are accurately represented. However, this local accuracy comes at the cost of global size distortion, leading to misconceptions about the relative sizes of countries like Greenland.
Conclusion: Understanding Map Limitations
Understanding the limitations of different map projections is crucial for accurately interpreting geographic information. While Greenland is undoubtedly a large island, its size is often exaggerated on common maps due to the distortions inherent in the Mercator projection. By comparing Greenland to other landmasses using tools that preserve size accuracy, we can gain a more realistic understanding of its true size relative to North America and the rest of the world. For further exploration on this topic, the video “Why all world maps are wrong” provides a comprehensive explanation.
