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africa

Africa Infographic – By Kai Krause

The size of Africa as a landmass is greatly underestimated. This is due in part to the proportions used on the Mercator map. The Mercator map is the map that is most commonly used and tends to skew the view of the world’s landmasses, which has led to misrepresentations of the size of countries and continents. The issue with the Mercator Map is not Africa’s size on the map. Its size on the Mercator map is proportionally accurate. Because the map lays out the landmasses of the world across a circular/cylinder-like area. This causes the areas closest to the “poles” to be elongated/stretched. Africa overlays the Equator so it’s size proportions change only minimally while the size of other continents/countries is inflated.

Kai Krause has created a helpful infographic that depicts the actual and true size of Africa. The landmass of Africa encompasses 11.7 million square miles (30.37 million square kilometers). This makes Africa large enough to hold the U.S., China, Mexico, Japan and several European nations all within its borders. The continent of Africa is comprised of 54 countries and is home to 1.2 billion people.

Source:

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/map-true-size-of-africa/?fbclid=IwAR1IGTPQog6KA-l4YvtNx_PLOUkjsngzMHok8rRcGqEWQVun1tZuG7inSDkQ

The True Size of Africa

https://www.africaguide.com/true-size-of-africa.htm