The United Nations General Assembly has endorsed a new approach to depicting the world that aims to provide a more accurate representation of the relative size of continents. The resolution, driven by African countries, received overwhelming support at the UN, with 164 nations voting in favour. The United States was the only country to vote against the resolution, while six countries abstained.
The move focuses on replacing the long-used Mercator projection with alternative equal-area representations, including the Equal Earth projection. The change would make Africa appear considerably larger on commonly viewed world maps, while the apparent size of North America and Europe would be reduced. The initiative has been presented by its supporters as an effort to correct geographical distortions that have shaped people’s understanding of the world’s continents for centuries.
The traditional Mercator projection was created by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator in 1569, primarily to assist maritime navigation. It became one of the world’s most widely recognised map projections because it preserves angles and shapes effectively, making it useful for navigation. However, it does not accurately preserve the relative area of land masses. As a result, regions located farther from the equator appear significantly larger than they actually are, while countries and continents closer to the equator are visually reduced.
One of the most frequently cited examples of this distortion is Greenland. On many conventional Mercator maps, Greenland appears to be almost comparable in size to Africa. In reality, Africa covers about 30.3 million square kilometres, while Greenland has an area of around 2.16 million square kilometres, making Africa nearly 14 times larger. India, with an area of approximately 3.29 million square kilometres, is also larger than Greenland despite often appearing smaller on conventional maps.
The Equal Earth projection, developed by a team of cartographers and introduced in 2018, attempts to address this problem by preserving the relative surface areas of continents more accurately. Under the projection, Africa, Latin America, South Asia and Oceania receive greater visual prominence, while the exaggerated size of northern regions is reduced. The objective is not to eliminate every distortion, which is impossible when representing a three-dimensional globe on a flat surface, but to ensure that the relative areas of continents are more faithfully portrayed.
Togo played a leading role in bringing the issue before the United Nations. Foreign Minister Robert Dussey argued that maps are not merely technical tools because they influence education and the way people understand the world. Supporters of the initiative say that the widespread use of distorted maps can reinforce inaccurate perceptions of the importance and scale of different regions, particularly Africa and other parts of the Global South.
The United States, however, opposed the resolution and criticised the General Assembly for devoting attention to cartographic representation instead of what it considers more urgent global challenges. US representative Yaryna Ferencevych argued that the UN should focus on pressing international problems rather than what Washington described as an ideological debate surrounding historical maps and issues such as reparations and “cognitive justice”.
The resolution is not a legally binding order requiring every country, school or technology company to immediately replace its existing maps. Instead, it encourages governments, educational institutions, publishers and other organisations to consider more accurate equal-area projections. India supported the resolution, although it clarified that its vote should not be interpreted as an endorsement of any single map projection, including Equal Earth.
France, which co-sponsored the resolution, said it would move away from the Mercator projection. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot argued that conventional maps give disproportionate visual prominence to countries such as the United States, Russia and China while making Africa and other regions appear smaller. He said that changing a map would not change the world’s realities, but correcting an inaccurate representation could contribute to a more truthful understanding of global geography.
The UN decision therefore represents more than a technical discussion among cartographers. Supporters view it as an attempt to improve geographical accuracy while challenging historical perceptions created by conventional maps. The debate is likely to continue as governments, schools and technology companies consider whether and how alternative projections should be incorporated into classrooms, publications and digital mapping platforms.
