The United Nations General Assembly has backed a resolution calling for greater use of world maps that accurately represent the relative size of Africa and other continents.
The “Correct the Map” resolution, sponsored by Togo and supported by members of the African Union, was adopted with 164 countries voting in favour. France and the United Kingdom were among those that supported the resolution, while the United States voted against it and six countries abstained.
Although the resolution is non-binding, its adoption is expected to encourage institutions around the world to reconsider the continued use of the centuries-old Mercator projection.
The Mercator map, developed by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator in 1569, was designed primarily to assist European navigators. However, its projection significantly distorts the relative size of land masses, particularly as they approach the poles.
Under the Mercator projection, Greenland appears roughly comparable in size to Africa, despite Africa covering about 30.4 million square kilometres compared with Greenland’s approximately 2.2 million square kilometres. Africa is therefore about 14 times larger.
The distortion occurs because it is impossible to represent the curved surface of the Earth perfectly on a flat map. Different map projections therefore make different compromises involving size, shape, distance or direction.
Critics of the Mercator projection argue that its widespread use has contributed to misconceptions about the scale, resources and importance of countries and continents, particularly those located around the equator.
In 2018, a group of cartographers developed the Equal Earth projection as an alternative designed to represent the relative sizes of continents more accurately while maintaining a visually familiar world map.
In February, the African Union’s 54 member states adopted the Equal Earth projection, saying it “more accurately represents the sizes of all continents, particularly Africa.”
The campaign group #CorrectTheMap, which has advocated replacing the Mercator projection, said Africa’s enormous size is often underestimated.
“You could fit the United States, China, India, Japan, Mexico and much of Europe into Africa and still have land to spare,” the group said.
Ahead of the UN vote, Togo’s Foreign Minister, Robert Dussey, told Reuters: “A fair world begins with a fair map.”
Speaking at a UN briefing earlier, Dussey argued that maps influence how people understand the world.
“A map is never neutral. It shapes perceptions, influences how the place of peoples and continents in the world is understood,” he said.
France also backed the campaign. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said his ministry would stop using the Mercator projection.
“Changing the map obviously doesn’t change the world. But correcting a representation that distorts it is already an act of truth,” Barrot said.
However, the United States opposed the resolution. Its representative at the UN, Yaryna Ferencevych, criticised the General Assembly for devoting attention to the issue.
“Instead of focusing on genuine problems of international peace, prosperity, or good relations, this body is debating map projects from the 16th Century, and their role in promoting reparations and ‘cognitive justice’,” she said.
The US had also criticised a UN resolution adopted in March declaring the transatlantic slave trade “the gravest crime against humanity.”
For advocates of the new map, however, the issue goes beyond cartography.
Lerato Mogoatlhe of Africa No Filter, one of the organisations behind the campaign, described Africa’s distorted representation as a broader narrative problem.
“Africa’s misrepresentation on world maps is not just a cartographic error – it’s a narrative issue,” she said, describing the campaign as an effort to challenge what she called the “world’s longest misinformation and disinformation” about Africa.
Kenyan geographer Kioko Muendo similarly argued that the Mercator projection has contributed to an understated perception of Africa’s vast resources, population and economic potential.
“Maps are more than just guides for travellers – they shape how regions are perceived politically and economically,” he said.
The UN decision is unlikely to eliminate the Mercator projection, which remains useful for navigation and other specialised purposes. Instead, proponents of the resolution hope it will encourage wider adoption of equal-area projections, particularly in education, media and public institutions.
For its supporters, changing the map is ultimately about changing how Africa is seen: not by altering its geography, but by ensuring that its physical scale is represented more accurately.
