World Map Projections, Globe, Countries and Capitals: Interactive Maps
Free interactive world maps: morph between 28 map projections (Mercator, Equal Earth, Robinson, Winkel tripel, the azimuthal 'flat earth' map...) and see what each one stretches with Tissot circles, spin a globe with day and night, explore every country with its capital, population and states or provinces, drag countries to compare their true size, measure great-circle routes and play a geography quiz.
The Earth is round, a map is flat, and no flat map can keep every shape, size, distance and direction at once (Gauss proved it in 1827). Each projection chooses what to keep. Pick one and watch the map morph into it; turn on Tissot circles or area colours to see exactly what it stretches.
The only map without distortion is a globe. Drag to spin it (flick it and it keeps turning), zoom with + / − or Ctrl+scroll, click a country to fly there. Unroll it to watch the round Earth peel flat into the projection you choose.
| # | Country ▾ | Capital ▾ | People ▾ | Area ▾ | Density ▾ |
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Click a row or a country on the map. Population and GDP are 2019 estimates (Natural Earth); areas are worked out from the map outline, so they are close but not official. Turn on States & provinces to see the states, provinces and their capitals of the USA, Canada, Australia, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Russia and South Africa.
On the Mercator map (Google Maps, most classroom maps) things grow the further they are from the equator. Make a copy of any country and drag it: it is moved over the real globe, so it keeps its true size and shape, and you see how big it really is next to the others. Switch to an equal-area map and nothing changes size at all.
Why do flights from North America to Europe fly over Greenland? The shortest route on a sphere is a great circle, which looks curved on most maps. Drag the A and B pins or click the map to place them, or type two capitals.
Map projections explained
A map projection is a rule that turns every point on the round Earth (its latitude and longitude) into a point on a flat page. Peel an orange and try to press the peel flat: it tears or stretches. Maps do the same in a controlled way, and the choice of projection decides what gets stretched. Carl Friedrich Gauss proved in his Theorema Egregium (1827) that a sphere can never be flattened without distortion, so every flat world map is a compromise.
What a projection can keep
- Conformal (angles)
- Small shapes and angles are right, so a coastline looks right up close. Sizes are not: Mercator, stereographic and Lambert conformal conic are conformal.
- Equal area (sizes)
- Every country has its true size relative to the others, so maps of population, forests or anything per square kilometre stay honest. Equal Earth, Mollweide, Gall-Peters and Albers are equal area.
- Equidistant (distances)
- Distances are true along some lines, for example from the centre of an azimuthal equidistant map, or along the meridians of the equirectangular map.
- Gnomonic (shortest routes)
- Every straight line is a great circle, the shortest path on the sphere, which is why navigators plan long routes on it.
- Compromise
- Robinson and Winkel tripel keep nothing exactly, but spread the errors so the whole world looks about right.
How to read Tissot circles
Nicolas Tissot (1859) drew identical small circles all over the globe and looked at what the projection did to them. Where the circles stay round the map is conformal; where they keep the same area (but turn into ellipses) it is equal area; where they grow, the map exaggerates. On Mercator the circles near the poles become huge but stay round.
Is the "flat earth map" a real map?
The map often shown as a flat Earth is the azimuthal equidistant projection centred on the North Pole, also the basis of the United Nations emblem. It is a projection of the globe like any other: distances and directions from the North Pole are true, but everything else stretches with distance from the centre. Antarctica, a continent, becomes a thin ring round the edge, and southern countries are drawn far wider than they are. Try it in the Projections tab with Tissot circles on, then measure a southern route such as Sydney to Santiago in the Distances tab: on that map the flight looks impossibly long, on the globe it is a 11,300 km great circle that real airlines fly.
Why does Greenland look as big as Africa?
On Mercator the scale grows with the secant of the latitude, and area with its square: at 60° north everything is drawn 4 times too big, at 72° (central Greenland) about 10 times. Africa is in fact about 14 times larger than Greenland. Drag Greenland onto Africa in the True size tab to see it.
Questions
- Which projection is the most accurate?
- None is accurate in every way. For fair sizes use an equal-area map such as Equal Earth; for a good overall look, Winkel tripel; for navigation by compass, Mercator; for one country, a conic map centred on it.
- Why does Google Maps use Mercator?
- Because it is conformal: streets meet at the right angles at every zoom level, and north is always up. At world scale the sizes are badly wrong.
- Where do the data come from?
- Country, state and province outlines and capitals come from Natural Earth (public domain) via the world-atlas files; populations and GDP are Natural Earth's 2019 estimates. Disputed borders follow Natural Earth's de facto lines and are not a statement about any claim.
- Is anything uploaded?
- No. Everything runs in your browser; your settings are kept on this device only.
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