General Knowledge
Bigger or Smaller Country Quiz
Think you know which countries are bigger? Mercator projection has been lying to you.
Think you know which countries are bigger? Mercator projection has been lying to you.
Most people grow up looking at Mercator projection maps — and those maps are deeply misleading. Africa is actually 14 times larger than Greenland, yet on a standard wall map Greenland appears nearly the same size. Africa's true area of 30.37 million km² dwarfs Greenland's 2.17 million km², and in fact Africa alone is larger than the United States, China, India, Japan, and all of Europe combined. Country size comparisons are full of surprises that will challenge everything you think you know about world geography.
Each round presents 10 randomized questions from a pool of 50, with four multiple-choice options and instant feedback after every answer. Your final score comes with a performance tier and shareable results.
This quiz covers surprising land area comparisons from around the world — how Russia spans 11 time zones, why Australia is wider than the Moon, how Bangladesh packs 170 million people into an area smaller than Iowa, and which tiny nations like Vatican City and Monaco defy everything we assume about countries. You'll come away with a genuinely accurate picture of the world's geography.
The Mercator projection, invented by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator in 1569, distorts land areas dramatically as you move toward the poles. It was designed to help sailors navigate using straight compass lines, not to accurately represent relative country sizes. As a result, Greenland appears nearly as large as Africa on Mercator maps, when in reality Africa is about 14 times larger.
Yes, dramatically so. Africa covers approximately 30.37 million square kilometers, making it the world's second-largest continent. It is larger than the United States, China, India, Japan, and all of Europe combined. Because Africa sits near the equator, the Mercator projection shrinks it relative to landmasses closer to the poles, making its true scale genuinely shocking to most people raised on standard world maps.
Vatican City is the smallest country in the world at just 0.44 square kilometers (about 110 acres), entirely surrounded by Rome, Italy. Monaco is the second smallest at 2.02 km², and San Marino ranks third. Despite its tiny size, Vatican City is a fully sovereign state with its own government, postal system, radio station, and bank.
Last updated: March 2026