Meet Equal Earth, Our Default Map
Every map in this app starts on Equal Earth. We picked it because it never lies about size — a country that covers 2% of Earth's land covers 2% of this map too. It bends shapes a bit near the top and bottom edges, but it never makes a small country look huge or a huge country look small.
It's also pretty new — it was published in 2018 by three cartographers, Bojan Šavrič, Tom Patterson, and Bernhard Jenny, who wanted a map that looked as pleasant as older 'compromise' maps but was actually mathematically fair about size, not just fair-looking.
Use the projection lab to compare it side by side with the others — watch how Greenland shrinks back down to its true, much smaller size the moment you switch off Mercator.
For teachers
- Learning objective: students can state that Equal Earth is equal-area (preserves relative size) and name at least one thing it does not preserve (shape and angle, especially near the poles).
- Good discussion prompt: why did it take until 2018 for a 'good' equal-area default to catch on, when equal-area projections have existed for centuries? (Answer: earlier equal-area maps were often seen as visually distorted, which hurt adoption even when they were mathematically sound.)
- Pair this lesson with the Projection Lab module so students see the size claim animated, not just read it.