At 110,572 square miles, Nevada is a big state, ranking as the 7th largest in the US. Surprisingly enough, were Nevada a country, it would also be considered relatively big, ranking as the 73rd largest country by area out of around 200 countries, just a tad larger than Ecuador. However, those stats may not give you a great idea of how Nevada’s girth actually compares to different countries, since size is often better understood visually.
But before you head off to Google Maps to see how Nevada compares to other countries, keep in mind that Google Maps uses the Mercator projection, a 2D map projection that sacrifices size in order to maintain shape. These map distortions warp landmasses to make them look larger the further they are from the equator.
In order to get around Mercator distortions, we used thetruesize.com, which corrects for Mercator distortions, to create our maps comparing Nevada to countries around the world, then added some extra data around each country. Ever wondered if Iceland is bigger than Nevada, as it appears on most maps? Check out the infographic to find out.
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