What the map displays
The global geometry is derived from Natural Earth at a consistent small-map scale. EqualAtlas uses ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 identifiers to connect individually coded shapes with country and territory profiles. The current directory contains 238 such places.
Countries and territories
The directory includes sovereign states and separately coded territories when Natural Earth supplies an individual geometry. A territory's appearance in the directory does not describe its constitutional relationship or imply independent statehood. Profiles identify their source classification and avoid calling every mapped place a sovereign country.
Merged dependencies and very small places
If a dependency is merged into a parent geometry at the chosen map resolution, EqualAtlas does not invent a separate outline or area. Gibraltar, Tuvalu and the United States Minor Outlying Islands use the more detailed Natural Earth 1:10m fallback because they are absent from the 1:50m geometry. Very small places may need a locator marker at world scale even when their profile has a detailed outline.
Disputed and partially recognized areas
Boundaries and labels follow the selected upstream dataset and can differ from maps published by governments or international organizations. To prevent blank, unselectable land, source polygons without an ISO profile are joined to a published profile using a documented display convention: Somaliland to Somalia, Northern Cyprus to Cyprus, Kosovo to Serbia under the UN boundary convention, the Siachen Glacier to India as a display convention, and the Australian Indian Ocean territories to Australia. Crimea is assigned to Ukraine. These technical assignments make the atlas complete and interactive; they do not endorse or settle any sovereignty claim.
Antarctica and non-state geography
Antarctica is included because it is essential to a complete world map and to projection comparison. Its profile is geographic, not a claim that Antarctica is a country. Future continent and regional pages will publish their membership and geometry rules separately.
Names
English pages use stable, commonly understood English display names connected to ISO identifiers. Localized editions may use established names in their own language while keeping the same underlying identifier. Alternative names can be added for search and accessibility without silently changing the mapped geometry.
Corrections and change control
Boundary changes are reviewed as dataset updates, not edited ad hoc in production. A correction records the upstream source, affected identifiers and release date. Readers can report a factual or accessibility issue through the corrections page.
This map is designed for global-scale education and comparison. It is not suitable for navigation, cadastral measurement, maritime delimitation or legal determination. See the methodology and source register for calculation and licence details.