The widespread image of Greenland as a massive landmass, seemingly comparable to Africa or North America in size, is a common global misconception. This visual assumption, frequently reinforced by the world maps found in classrooms and online, is a direct result of the mathematical compromises inherent in translating a three-dimensional sphere onto a flat, two-dimensional surface. The true geographic dimensions of the island are significantly different from its familiar on-map appearance.
Why Maps Make Greenland Look Massive
The visual distortion that inflates Greenland’s size stems from the use of the Mercator projection, a map created in 1569 by Gerardus Mercator. This projection was a breakthrough for maritime navigation because it renders lines of constant compass bearing, known as rhumb lines, as straight segments, making it simple for sailors to plot a course across the ocean. The navigational convenience of this map, however, comes at a cost to the accurate representation of land area. To project the curved surface of the Earth onto a flat rectangle, the Mercator projection must stretch out the landmasses, and this stretching increases dramatically the farther a location is from the equator. As Greenland is located at very high latitudes, close to the North Pole, its size is severely exaggerated on the map.
Greenland’s True Geographic Dimensions
Greenland is the world’s largest island that is not classified as a continent. Its total land area is approximately 2.16 million square kilometers, or about 836,330 square miles. Nearly 80% of this area is permanently covered by the Greenland Ice Sheet, a massive body of ice second in size only to the Antarctic ice sheet. The ice-free land, which consists mostly of coastal mountains and tundra, is concentrated in the peripheral areas of the island. The sheer scale of the ice sheet is immense, with an average thickness of 1,500 meters and a maximum thickness that can reach 3,000 meters.
Real Comparisons to Continents and Countries
When Greenland’s actual area is compared to other major landmasses, the magnitude of the Mercator projection’s distortion becomes obvious. On a Mercator map, Greenland often appears visually similar in size to the continent of Africa, yet Africa measures approximately 30.3 million square kilometers, making it more than 14 times larger than Greenland’s true size. Similarly, Greenland is frequently shown on maps as comparable in size to South America, but South America is over eight times larger than Greenland in total land area. The illusion persists even when compared to large individual countries. For example, Greenland appears to be nearly the size of the contiguous United States on many maps, but the contiguous 48 states are actually about 3.5 times larger. Greenland’s entire area is roughly equivalent to the combined area of several major Western European nations:
- France
- Germany
- Spain
- Italy
- Austria
- The United Kingdom
Australia, which is also an island continent, is over 3.5 times larger than Greenland.