The Mercator projection exaggerates areas far from the equator.
Examples of size distortion
-Antarctica appears to be extremely large. If the entire globe were mapped, Antarctica would inflate infinitely. In reality, it is the third smallest continent.
-Ellesmere Island on the north of Canada's Arctic archipelago looks about the same size as Australia, although Australia is over 39 times as large.
-All islands in Canada's Arctic archipelago look at least 4 times too large, and the more northern islands look even larger.
-Greenland appears the same size as Africa, when in reality Africa's area is 14 times as large.
-Greenland's real area is comparable to the Democratic Republic of the Congo's alone.
-Africa appears to be roughly the same size as South America, when in reality Africa is over one and a half times as large.
-Svalbard appears to be larger than Borneo, when, in reality, Borneo is about 12 times as large as Svalbard.
-Alaska appears to be the same size as Australia, although Australia is actually 4 ½ times as large.
-Alaska also takes as much area on the map as Brazil, whereas Brazil's area is nearly 5 times that of Alaska.
--Madagascar and Great Britain look about the same size, while Madagascar is actually more than twice as large as the largest of the British Isles.
-Sweden appears much larger than Madagascar. In reality Madagascar is a little larger.
-Russia appears bigger than the whole of Africa, or North America (without the latter's islands). It also appears twice the size of China and the contiguous United States combined, when, in reality, the sum is comparable in size.
-The northern inflation acutely distorts Russia's shape as well, making it appear much taller north-to-south and greatly stretching its arctic regions compared to its mid latitudes.
-The northern inflation acutely distorts Russia's shape as well, making it appear much taller north-to-south and greatly stretching its arctic regions compared to its mid latitudes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercator_projection
