Offbeat | More precise data makes tiny Estonia grow by 834 islands

Tiny Estonia just got a little bit bigger. Modern technology has made Estonia grow by 112 square kilometers by including 834 islands that were not accounted for in earlier surveys. Hanno Kuus of Estonia’s state mapping agency says the current number of islands and islets in the Baltic Sea and in bigger Estonian lakes grew to 2,355 from 1,521 — mainly ones at sea.
Kuus said Friday that “in reality, Estonia gained no extra land,” but technology including aerial photography and laser scanning has given the Estonian Land Board figures that “correspond now more to the reality.” Earlier paper maps gave Estonia’s size as 45,227 square kilometers. It has now been corrected to 45,339 square kilometers.