About CountryShape
An interactive map for comparing the true size of countries, subdivisions, historical empires, organizations, and proposed states.
What CountryShape does
CountryShape lets you place geographic shapes on a world map, drag them to different locations, rotate and flip them, and compare their relative sizes side by side. It is designed for education, exploration, and visual storytelling—not as an authoritative legal or political reference.
Comparing and dragging shapes
Search for a country, state or province, historical empire, international organization, or proposed territory and add it to the map. Each shape preserves its real-world area. You can drag shapes across latitudes, rotate them with the compass dial, flip them horizontally or vertically, group multiple territories together, customize colors and labels, and share your arrangement via a link.
Historical empires and other entities
Beyond modern countries and first-level subdivisions (such as US states or Canadian provinces), CountryShape includes selected historical polities, organizational footprints, and proposed states. These are provided for comparative and educational context. Coverage is curated for shapes that work well on a flat map; very dispersed or global entities may be excluded because they lack a meaningful single center for comparison.
Why Mercator distorts apparent size
Most web maps use a Mercator projection. Mercator preserves local angles and shapes well, which makes navigation practical, but it stretches areas dramatically toward the poles. On a standard Mercator map, Greenland can look comparable to Africa even though Africa is roughly fourteen times larger. CountryShape helps make that distortion visible by letting you overlay true-area shapes.
Why moving a shape changes its displayed size
CountryShape draws each territory at its true area, then scales the outline to match the map’s projection at the latitude where you place it. When you move a shape north or south, its on-screen size updates because Mercator (and similar cylindrical projections) use different scale factors at different latitudes. That behavior is intentional: it shows how the same landmass would appear if it were located elsewhere on the map.
Historical and comparative boundary limitations
Historical boundaries are approximate representations of past control, not precise legal records. Borders change over time, sources disagree, and digitization simplifies coastlines and enclaves. Modern boundaries follow common cartographic practice and community-mapped data; disputed areas are shown as they are widely mapped without endorsing any claim. CountryShape does not resolve territorial disputes.
Data and methodology
Country boundaries and subdivisions are derived from OpenStreetMap contributor data. Historical boundaries draw on OpenHistoricalMap and public-domain archives where applicable. Population, capital, and related statistics in search results are compiled from Wikidata and Wikipedia metadata bundled with the app.
The basemap you see underneath shapes is separate from CountryShape geometry: vector map tiles are rendered from Protomaps using OpenStreetMap data. The interactive map library is Leaflet.
Area figures are computed from each shape’s geometry. During drag operations, outlines may be temporarily simplified for performance and restored when you release the shape.
Questions or feedback: contact@countryshape.com.