The Equal Earth projection
Equal Earth is the map this whole site starts on. It has one job: never make a country look bigger or smaller than it really is. Every other map on this site bends that rule a little — this one doesn't.
Key facts
- Family
- Pseudocylindrical, equal-area
- Designer
- Bojan Šavrič, Tom Patterson, and Bernhard Jenny
- Year
- 2018
- Preserves
- True size
- Best for
- Comparing the true size of countries and continents, choropleth and data maps, and everyday reference — it's this site's default
- Weak at
- Shape and angle, especially the further you get from the equator
What it looks like
Equal Earth looks like a wide, gently curved oval world, with the edges near the top and bottom leaning inward instead of running straight up and down like a Mercator map. The lines of longitude curve smoothly instead of staying as straight verticals.
What it keeps true
Size. That's it, and it's the whole point. If a country covers a certain share of the globe's land, it covers that same share of this map. Nothing gets puffed up, nothing gets shrunk down to make room for something else.
What it distorts, and why
To keep size honest everywhere, Equal Earth has to bend shapes a bit, especially near the top and bottom of the map. A country near a pole might look a little squashed or stretched compared to how it looks on a globe, even though its size is exactly right.
Where it came from
Equal Earth is new. Three mapmakers — Bojan Šavrič, Tom Patterson, and Bernhard Jenny — published it in 2018. They wanted a map that was fair about size but still looked good, because older fair-about-size maps had a reputation for looking a bit strange.
When to reach for it
Reach for Equal Earth any time you're comparing how big places are — countries, continents, anything where size matters. It's a solid everyday map for almost anything that isn't sailing a ship.
Try it yourself
Frequently asked questions
Who made the Equal Earth projection and why?
Equal Earth was published in 2018 by three cartographers, Bojan Šavrič, Tom Patterson, and Bernhard Jenny. They wanted a default web world map that was mathematically honest about size, unlike Mercator, but still looked as pleasant as older compromise maps. It quickly became a popular replacement for Mercator as the web's go-to thumbnail world map.
What is the most accurate map projection?
There isn't one — no flat map can preserve area, shape, and distance all at once, because a curved surface can't be flattened without some kind of stretching. 'Accurate' depends on what you need: Equal Earth is accurate about size, Mercator is accurate about direction, and neither is accurate about the other. The right question is always accurate for what job.
Why does Equal Earth look a bit like the Robinson projection?
It was designed that way on purpose. Equal Earth's creators wanted the inviting, rounded look that made Robinson and similar compromise maps popular, but built it on a strict equal-area formula instead of a visually-tuned compromise. So it borrows the look while making an actual mathematical guarantee about size that Robinson doesn't.
Does the Equal Earth projection distort anything?
Yes — shape and angle, especially away from the equator. It guarantees true relative area everywhere, but that guarantee comes at the cost of bending outlines, most noticeably near the poles. It's a real tradeoff, just a gentler and more even one than most other projections make.
Why isn't Equal Earth used on Google Maps or phone map apps?
Because those apps need street-level navigation and map tiles that line up neatly at every zoom level, which is exactly what Mercator's straight, conformal grid is built for. Equal Earth is built for comparing sizes across the whole globe at once, not for zooming into a single street, so the two projections are suited to different jobs.