Exploring Size and Scale: Africa vs. Asia

The Size of Africa

Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6 of Earth's total surface area and 20 of its land area. With nearly 1.4 billion people as of 2021, it accounts for about 18 of the world's human population.

Africa vs. Asia

Africa is about 1.5 times smaller than Asia. Asia is approximately 44,614,000 sq km, while Africa is approximately 30,365,000 sq km, making Africa 68.06 the size of Asia. This to-scale comparison of Asia vs. Africa uses the Mercator projection, which distorts the size of regions near the poles.

Asia is about 1.5 times. bigger. than Africa. Africa is approximately 30,365,000 sq km, while Asia is approximately 44,614,000 sq km, making Asia 47 larger than Africa. Flip comparison⁚ see Asia on top of Africa. This to-scale comparison of Africa vs. Asia uses the Mercator projection, which distorts the size of regions near the poles.

Compare the size of countries, regions and cities Africa is 0.68 times as big as Asia. Africa. Africa is the worlds second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30;3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6 of Earths total surface area and 20 of its land area. ...

Africa is the worlds second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6 of Earths total surface area and 20 of its land area. With 1.3 billion people as of 2018, it accounts for about 16 of the worlds human population.

Africa's True Size

In fact, Africa's true size is 30 million square km, just under twice the size of Russia or bigger than Canada, the United States and China put together! As map nerds and/or West Wing fans already know, this is due to the common use of the Mercator projection, which makes countries near the poles look bigger and those at the equator look ...

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 continents 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 ...

Krauss doesn't say whether the area of these countries, or of Africa, is total surface area or just land area. The land area of a country leaves out waterways. But data from the World Bank and the CIA's World Factbook indicates that his symbolic image does give a good indication of the immense size of Africa.

Ethiopia ─ 1,104,300 sq km (426,373 sq mi) Africa is the second-largest and second-most-populous continent on our planet. About 30.3 million km2 (11.7 mln sq mi), including adjacent islands, covers 6 of Earth's total surface area and 20.4 of its total land area. With 1.2 billion people as of 2016, it accounts for about 16 of the world's ...

The Mercator Projection

On a typical world map, Canada is a vast nation. Home to six time zones, its endless plains spread from ocean to ocean, dominating great swathes of the northern half of the globe. But, in reality, three Canadas would comfortably fit inside Africa. Our world map is wildly misleading. It's all down to the European cartographer Geert de Kremer, better known as Mercator, and his 16th-century map projection ⎻ a common template for world maps today ⎻ which distorts the size of countries.

Now, schools in Boston are taking a stand against the tradition by introducing the lesser-known Peters projection from the 1970s (also called Gall-Peters projection) in classrooms, to teach children the real size of the continents. The move is part of a wider initiative to remove bias within education. By incorporating the Peters projection maps ⎻ an equal area representation ─ into classrooms, we are opening the door for students to view the world in a different light, says Natacha Scott, social studies director at Boston Public Schools.

The initiative will see students comparing different maps. By exploring geography, we also hope to increase an awareness of the relationship between themselves to other countries, communities, cultures and individuals around the world, Scott adds. Though a convenient way to chart the world, Mercator's map distorts proportions, making some landmasses larger that they are in reality. Somehow this map projection came to be used on most world maps, especially those produced for classrooms since the beginning of the 1900s, says Menno-Jan Kraak, president of the International Cartographic Association and professor of cartography at the University of Twente, Netherlands. Most of us have grown up with this world image.

Africa's Immense Size

To open our eyes to this distortion, Kai Krause, the famous graphical user interface designer, created a map called The True Size of Africa which shows how many countries the continent can contain, and it is mind-boggling. "Africa is bigger than the entirety of the USA, all of China, India, as well as Japan and pretty much all of Europe as well ⎻ all combined!", explains Krause.

Africa is about 3.2 times bigger than China. China is approximately 9,596,960 sq km, while Africa is approximately 30,365,000 sq km, making Africa 216 larger than China. This to-scale comparison of China vs. Africa uses the Mercator projection, which distorts the size of regions near the poles.

Africa size comparison Save 30,200,000 km2 / 11,657,200 mile2. Africa is the worlds second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6 of Earths total surface area and 20 of its land area. The continent is surrounded by ...

The 1569 Mercator projection was made for navigating the seas ─ drawing the meridians and parallels as straight lines that cross at right angles helped sailors to navigate some of the their first treacherous voyages around the world. Mercator initially made globes. Later transferring his map from a three-dimensional curved surface to a flat sheet of paper was problematic. Taking the equator as the logical map center left big, confusing gaps near the poles. Mercator's solution was to stretch out the northern and southern extremities of the globe to fill those gaps, producing an elegant and usable map.

While a revolutionary tool for captains and explorers, the projection distorts the relative size of the continents, to the advantage of the West. The repercussions of this are still being felt today. On the Mercator map, Africa ⎻ sitting on the equator, reasonably undistorted ⎻ is left looking much smaller than it really is. But Canada, Russia, the United States and Europe are greatly enlarged. The distortion is largest near the poles⁚ Greenland, which looks about the same size as the whole of Africa on the Mercator, is a classic example. In truth, it is no bigger than the Democratic Republic of Congo.

That European and North American countries are enlarged is no accident. This system provided more space for Western cartographers to mark towns, cities, roads etc in their part of the world, Kraak says. "If you would take a map projection with equal areas then there is almost no space on the map to display all these details. There was, of course, much to map in Africa, too, but that mattered less to the cartographers up north," he adds.

One of the dangers of the Mercator map is that it can make enlarged countries seem unnaturally powerful and intimidating. The term "power of representation and representation of power" sums up quite well how maps and the rise of the Western nation-state system ⎻ and with that, empire and colonialism ─ are linked, says Marianne Franklin, professor of Global Media and Politics at Goldsmiths, University of London.

Tags: Africa,

Similar posts: