PROJECTION EXPLAINED

The Equal Earth Projection, Explained

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

Equal Earth turns longitude and latitude into a flat world map while keeping the relative area of every region consistent. Its appeal lies in combining that mathematical promise with a legible, balanced silhouette.

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

A projection is a set of choices

Earth is approximately spherical; screens and printed pages are flat. Moving between those surfaces means stretching, compressing or cutting the geography. Projection families are defined by the properties they preserve and by the geometry used to construct the flat coordinates.

Conformal projections protect local angles. Equal-area projections protect relative surface area. Equidistant projections keep selected distances true. A world map cannot preserve all three everywhere, so technical accuracy begins by stating which property matters for the job.[3]

How Equal Earth was designed

Šavrič, Patterson and Jenny developed Equal Earth as an alternative to equal-area projections whose stretched shapes can discourage general use. Their 2018 paper defines a closed-form projection with straight parallels, a straight central meridian and curved outer meridians.[1]

The result resembles Robinson at a glance, but the mathematical behaviour differs. Robinson is a compromise: it distributes several kinds of distortion without exactly preserving a single global property. Equal Earth guarantees equal area throughout.[2]

What ‘correct size’ means

Correct size means proportional mapped area, not an identical outline. If Africa covers about fourteen times Greenland’s surface area, its shape covers about fourteen times as much space on an Equal Earth map. Coastline shapes still bend because area preservation does not preserve every local angle.

A screen can introduce another layer of confusion. Zooming two projections to unrelated extents makes pixel footprints incomparable. This site uses matched panel dimensions and a shared geographic viewport so that its screen-area comparison has a stated, repeatable basis.

Using Equal Earth in software

Equal Earth is widely implemented in contemporary geospatial software and is registered as EPSG:8857. On this site, D3’s geoEqualEarth implementation projects the same Natural Earth coordinates used in the Mercator panel.[2][4]

For serious measurement, keep calculations on a geodesic or suitable regional coordinate system rather than measuring lengths from a small world map. Equal Earth makes area patterns visually honest; it is not a substitute for a survey-grade workflow.

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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