Mexico vs Papua New Guinea

Mexico is 4.26 times larger than Papua New Guinea. Papua New Guinea would fit into Mexico about 4.3 times.

MexicoPapua New GuineaMexico moved onto Papua New Guinea · Equal-area projection
4.26×
Mexico is 4.26× the area of Papua New Guinea.
MexicoPapua New Guinea
Area1,972,550 km²462,840 km²
Population131,946,90010,762,817
Density67 / km²23 / km²
CapitalMexico CityPort Moresby
RegionCentral AmericaMelanesia
CoastlineHas a coastHas a coast
Neighbours31

Why the map you grew up with disagrees

On a Mercator map, area grows with distance from the equator. Mexico sits at about 24°N and is stretched to 1.2× its true area; Papua New Guinea at 6° S is stretched to 1.01×. Here the two are distorted about the same amount, so Mercator gets this pair roughly right. The figure above uses the Equal Earth projection, where every square kilometre is drawn the same size.

Questions about this pair

Is Mexico bigger than Papua New Guinea?
Yes. Mexico is 4.26 times larger than Papua New Guinea. Mexico covers 1,972,550 km² and Papua New Guinea covers 462,840 km².
How many times does Papua New Guinea fit into Mexico?
About 4.3 times: Mexico has 4.26× the area of Papua New Guinea.
Why do Mexico and Papua New Guinea look different on Google Maps?
Web maps use the Mercator projection, which stretches area with distance from the equator. Mexico is drawn about 1.2× its true area there and Papua New Guinea about 1.01×. For this pair the distortion is similar, so Mercator gets the comparison roughly right. Kartavera uses Equal Earth, where every square kilometre is drawn the same size.
Which has more people, Mexico or Papua New Guinea?
Mexico: 131,946,900 people against 10,762,817. Density: Mexico 67 per km², Papua New Guinea 23 per km².