UN General Assembly adopts new world map that shows Africa’s true size

The United Nations General Assembly on Friday endorsed a new world map designed to portray Africa in a more accurate proportion, marking the culmination of a campaign spearheaded by African countries and advocacy organisations.

The resolution, sponsored by Togo and supported by members of the African Union, was adopted with 164 member states voting in favour. The United States was the only country to vote against it, while Serbia, Estonia, Georgia, Lithuania, Moldova and Ukraine abstained.

The resolution encourages governments, educational institutions and organisations worldwide to consider replacing the traditional Mercator projection, which has been widely used since the 16th century, with the Equal Earth projection. Advocates and geographers say the newer map provides a more accurate representation of the relative sizes of continents.

Under the Mercator projection, Greenland can appear roughly comparable in size to Africa. The Equal Earth projection, however, reflects their actual proportions, showing Africa as approximately 14 times larger than Greenland.

The UN clarified that the resolution does not prohibit the use of the Mercator projection or make the Equal Earth map mandatory. Instead, it encourages greater use of the Equal Earth projection.

“Maps shape our understanding of the world,” Togo’s Foreign Minister Robert Dussey was quoted by the UN as saying ahead of the vote. He noted that maps influence education, imagination and people’s collective perceptions of the world.

Africa No Filter, one of the organisations leading the campaign, welcomed the resolution and called for accurate maps to be adopted in schools, textbooks, newsrooms, businesses and digital platforms used by millions of people worldwide.

Several countries also welcomed the decision and encouraged wider adoption of the Equal Earth projection.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said on X after the vote that changing a map would not change the world, but correcting a distorted representation could be considered an act of truth.

Dussey similarly argued that some map projections used for decades and centuries have portrayed Africa and other regions in ways that fail to reflect their actual landmass.

“Correcting the map, therefore, also means correcting a perception,” he said.

Why the Mercator map is being challenged

The Mercator projection was developed by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator primarily to assist European navigators at sea. However, critics have long pointed out that it significantly distorts the size of landmasses, particularly those located farther from the Equator.

Regions such as Greenland and North America appear much larger on the Mercator map, while Africa and South America appear relatively smaller than their actual sizes.

The Equal Earth projection, introduced in 2018, was developed to preserve the relative proportions of continents while presenting the Earth’s curved surface on a flat map.

Geographers acknowledge that the Mercator projection remains useful for navigation because of its specific properties. Outside that application, however, some experts argue that there is little justification for using it as the default representation of the world’s landmasses.

“Outside of that very narrow navigation application, there is no point in using it,” Syracuse University geography professor Mark Monmonier said.