Connect with us

Misc

Mapped: Visualizing the True Size of Africa

Published

on

The True Size of Africa Map

Mapped: The True Size of Africa

Take a look at any map, and it’s clear that the African continent is a big place.

However, despite the common perception that Africa is a large landmass, it’s still one that is vastly underestimated by most casual map viewers.

The reason for this is that the familiar Mercator map projection tends to distort our geographical view of the world in a crucial way — one that often leads to misconceptions about the relative sizes of both countries and continents.

A Geographical Jigsaw

Today’s infographic comes from Kai Krause and it shows the true size of Africa, as revealed by the borders of the countries that can fit within the continent’s shape.

The African continent has a land area of 30.37 million sq km (11.7 million sq mi) — enough to fit in the U.S., China, India, Japan, Mexico, and many European nations, combined.

CountryLand Area (sq. km)Land Area (sq. mi)% of Africa
🇺🇸 United States9.83 million3.80 million32.4%
🇨🇳 China9.60 million3.71 million31.6%
🇮🇳 India3.29 million1.27 million10.8%
🇲🇽 Mexico1.96 million0.76 million6.5%
🇵🇪 Peru1.29 million0.50 million4.2%
🇫🇷 France0.64 million0.25 million2.1%
🇪🇸 Spain0.51 million0.20 million1.7%
🇵🇬 Papua New Guinea0.46 million0.18 million1.5%
🇸🇪 Sweden0.45 million0.17 million1.5%
🇯🇵 Japan0.38 million0.15 million1.3%
🇩🇪 Germany0.36 million0.14 million1.2%
🇳🇴 Norway0.32 million0.13 million1.1%
🇮🇹 Italy0.30 million0.12 million1.0%
🇳🇿 New Zealand0.27 million0.10 million0.9%
🇬🇧 United Kingdom0.24 million0.09 million0.8%
🇳🇵 Nepal0.15 million0.06 million0.5%
🇧🇩 Bangladesh0.15 million0.06 million0.5%
🇬🇷 Greece0.13 million0.05 million0.4%
Total30.33 million sq. km11.71 million sq. mi99.9%

You could add together all of the landmasses above and they would not equate to the geographical footprint of Africa, which itself is home to 54 countries and 1.2 billion people.

Editor’s note: The above table is slightly different from the countries shown in the visualization, which focuses more on fitting recognizable country shapes into the geographical shape of Africa.

Why the Misconception?

Interestingly, the problem with maps is not that Africa is sized incorrectly.

Using the animation below, you’ll see that Africa is actually the most accurately sized continent using the common Mercator map projection:

True size of countries animation Mercator

The Mercator projection attempts to place the spherical shape of the world onto a cylinder, causing areas closest to the poles to be “stretched”.

Africa, which straddles the Equator, barely changes in size — meanwhile, the countries furthest from the Equator become inflated from their true sizes on this type of map.

Mercator cylindrical projection

For those of us living in Western countries, this is an interesting dilemma to consider.

This means that the sizes of European and North American countries are distorted, giving us an inaccurate mental “measuring stick” for judging the relative sizes of other countries.

This has implications not only for Africa, but for the whole Southern Hemisphere: South America, India, the Middle East, and even Australia are “bigger” than they may initially appear on a map.

Click for Comments

Misc

Charted: Car Brand Loyalty in 2024

This ranking of car brand loyalty shows what percentage of owners would buy from the same brand for their next vehicle.

Published

on

Car Brand Loyalty in 2024

This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.

This graphic visualizes the best and worst car brands in terms of brand loyalty. This is measured by the % of current owners who would buy from the same brand for their next vehicle.

Data comes from Consumer Reports’ owner satisfaction survey, which includes responses from owners of more than 330,000 vehicles.

Car Brands With the Most Loyal Customers

Rivian takes the top spot in this ranking, with 86% of owners saying they would buy from the brand again. The EV startup has carved an interesting niche for itself with its outdoor adventure-focused models, and despite several recalls, appears to have won the hearts of its early customers.

Company% who would buy again
🇺🇸 Rivian86
🇩🇪 Mini77
🇩🇪 BMW76
🇩🇪 Porsche76
🇺🇸 Tesla74
🇰🇷 Genesis73
🇯🇵 Lexus73
🇯🇵 Subaru70

It’s interesting to note that Tesla held the #1 spot in last year’s ranking.

Car Brands With the Least Loyal Customers

At the other end of the spectrum we have brands with the least loyal customers, suggesting that owners are less satisfied with their purchase.

Company% who would buy again
🇺🇸 Cadillac61
🇺🇸 Chrysler60
🇩🇪 Mercedes-Benz59
🇩🇪 Audi59
🇺🇸 Jeep58
🇯🇵 Nissan55
🇩🇪 Volkswagen51
🇯🇵 Infiniti43

At the bottom of this table is Nissan’s luxury marque, Infiniti, with only 43% of owners saying they would revisit the brand for their next car.

Infiniti dealerships are aware of this alarming trend, and have attributed it to the brand’s aging lineup. In a recent interview, Steve Lapin, Chairman of the Infiniti National Dealer Advisory Board, said: “Product is king. Infiniti doesn’t have the right products right now to compete in the marketplace.”

Interested in learning more about the automotive industry? Check out this graphic, which ranks the world’s top 10 exporters of automotive products.

Continue Reading

Subscribe

Popular