At 104,094 square miles, Colorado is a big state, ranking as the 8th largest in the US. Surprisingly enough, were Colorado a country, it would also be considered relatively big, ranking as the 76th largest country by area out of around 200 countries, just a tad larger than Gabon. However, those stats may not give you a great idea of how Colorado’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 Colorado 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 Colorado to countries around the world, then added some extra data around each country. Ever wondered if Iceland is bigger than Colorado, as it appears on most maps? Check out the infographic to find out.
Embed this image on your site (copy the code below):
