UN Votes to Show Africa’s True Size on World Maps
The United Nations General Assembly has backed a resolution calling for greater use of world maps that more accurately represent the true size of continents, marking a major challenge to the centuries-old Mercator projection. The resolution was approved on September 4 by 164 countries, while six abstained and the United States was the only country to vote against it.
The initiative was led by Togo and supported by the African Union. It promotes the 2018 Equal Earth projection, an equal-area map designed to represent the relative sizes of continents more accurately.
The issue centers on the Mercator projection, created by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator in 1569. Although it remains useful for maritime navigation, its design greatly enlarges regions closer to the poles while making equatorial regions appear comparatively smaller.
One of the most striking examples is Greenland. On a conventional Mercator map, Greenland can appear comparable in size to Africa, even though Africa has roughly 14 times the land area of Greenland.
Supporters of the resolution argue that these distortions have influenced how generations of students and the wider public perceive Africa and other parts of the Global South. They say a more accurate map could help challenge longstanding misconceptions about the continent’s geographical scale and importance.
Togo’s Foreign Minister Robert Dussey has described the campaign as an effort to correct a historical imbalance in how Africa is represented. He has argued that accurate geographical representation is important in classrooms, institutions and digital platforms.
Togo plans to begin changing its own school geography materials before the end of this year and intends to encourage other governments, educational institutions and technology companies to consider the Equal Earth projection.
The United States, however, opposed the resolution. Washington argued that the initiative promoted an “ideological agenda” and distracted from what it described as more pressing international issues.
The UN decision does not legally require countries or companies to abandon the Mercator projection. It also does not challenge its continued use for maritime and aerial navigation, where the projection remains particularly useful.
For supporters of the #CorrectTheMap campaign, the vote is therefore only the beginning. They are now seeking wider adoption of more accurate maps in schools, textbooks, newsrooms and the digital mapping services used by billions of people worldwide.
