INTERACTIVE ATLAS

Equal Earth Map

By New World Map Editors · Published 2026-09-08 · Reviewed 2026-09-15

Equal Earth is a modern equal-area projection designed to keep the relative sizes of countries and continents correct without giving the world an unfamiliar, severely stretched outline.

Mercator and Equal Earth maps normalized around Africa — Use the interactive map in a browser to inspect individual countries and territories.

What makes Equal Earth different

Equal Earth is a pseudocylindrical, equal-area projection introduced in 2018 by cartographers Bojan Šavrič, Tom Patterson and Bernhard Jenny. ‘Equal-area’ is the important part: a region that covers one per cent of Earth’s surface also occupies one per cent of the mapped area, after allowing for the overall map scale.[1][2]

The design deliberately resembles the rounded Robinson projection, a familiar compromise map, while adding rigorous area preservation. Straight parallels make north–south position easy to follow, and curved outer meridians hint at the planet’s spherical form.[2]

What it preserves—and what it cannot

Equal Earth is the right tool when the visual comparison depends on area: climate zones, population density, forests, voting blocs, disease prevalence or the relative scale of continents. United Nations and International Cartographic Association guidance recommends equal-area projections for world thematic maps whose patterns are normalized by area.[3]

It cannot keep every coastline shape, direction and distance exact. No flat projection can be both conformal, preserving local angles, and equal-area. Shapes change most near the outer edges of an Equal Earth map; routes that look straight are not necessarily the shortest paths on the globe.[4]

Equal Earth is not a political boundary map

A projection supplies coordinates, not political judgments. The same Equal Earth mathematics can render different boundary datasets. Questions about disputed territories, naming conventions and recognition belong to the chosen source data and editorial policy, not to the projection itself.

This site renders Natural Earth’s public-domain 1:50m country geometry. It uses de facto boundary conventions suitable for small-scale world maps. Those lines may differ from maps published by national governments or international bodies, and tiny territories can fall below the source dataset’s polygon resolution.[5]

When to choose this map

Choose Equal Earth for a wall map, classroom overview, global data story or any comparison where a reader should judge relative land area. Choose a local projection for surveying or regional measurement, a globe for an undistorted overview, and Mercator when preserving local angles or using conventional slippy-map tiles is essential.

The linked map above lets you test the trade-off rather than accepting it on trust. Select a country near the equator, then one at a high latitude, and compare how its Mercator footprint changes against the equal-area view.

SOURCES & REVIEW

Sources for this article

We link to primary institutional material where possible and keep projection-dependent screen area separate from official statistics and boundary-derived geodesic estimates.

Published 2026-09-08 · Last reviewed 2026-09-15. News and institutional claims were checked against the cited record on the review date.

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