An incredible map shows the “true” size of Africa with China, India and America all fitting inside.
The continent is 30.37 million km² and covers 20 percent of the planet’s land area and six percent of its total surface area.
It is not accurately shown on the standard map, made with the Mercator projection. It makes countries along the equator appear smaller and countries closer to the poles larger.
Because of this, land masses like Russia and North America appear enormous in comparison to central Asia, Africa and South America. Though appearing the same size, Africa is 14 times the size of Greenland.
Africa covers the same surface as 13 countries – including the United States, China, India and Eastern Europe. The UK also features – covering the island of Madagascar.
With nearly 1.4 billion people as of 2021, it accounts for about 18 percent of the world’s human population.
Africa’s population is the youngest among all the continents; the median age in 2012 was 19.7, while the worldwide median age was 30.4.
A graphic designed by IO9 shows Africa is larger than the land masses of the US, China, India, Mexico, Peru, France, Spain, Papua New Guinea, Sweden, Japan, Germany, Norway, Italy, New Zealand, the UK, Nepal, Bangladesh and Greece put together.
It also lists the top 100 countries in the world in terms of biggest land size. Russia, Canada, China, the US and Brazil make up the top five.
The graphic also demonstrates how easily the whole of Europe would fit into Africa, as well as some of the biggest nations in the world individually.
Creator Kai Krause overlayed Portugal, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the UK, Japan, China, India, Eastern Europe, Italy, Germany, France, Spain and the US onto the continent.
