At 57,913 square miles, Illinois is a mid-sized state — in fact it’s precisely in the middle, ranking as the 25th largest US state by area. Surprisingly enough, were Illinois a country, it would also be considered mid-sized, ranking as the 92nd largest country by area, just a tag larger than Bangladesh. However, those stats may not give you a great idea of how Illinois’ girth actually compares to different countries, since size is often better understood visually.
But before you head off to Google Maps to see how Illinois 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 Illinois to countries around the world, then added some extra data around each country. Ever wondered if Iceland is bigger than Illinois, as it appears on most maps? Check out the infographic to find out.
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