The United Nations General Assembly voted on 4 September in favor of promoting a new world map designed to show the relative size of continents more accurately, in a move led by African countries and backed by the African Union.
The resolution, introduced by Togo, passed with 164 countries voting in favor, one against and six abstaining. The United States was the only country to vote against it.
At the center of the debate is the Mercator projection, a map created in the 16th century that remains widely used around the world. While the projection was designed for navigation, it significantly distorts the apparent size of land masses, particularly those farther from the Equator.
One of the clearest examples is Greenland. On a Mercator map, Greenland can appear comparable in size to Africa. In reality, Africa is about 14 times larger than Greenland.
The UN resolution promotes the Equal Earth projection, developed in 2018, which represents the relative areas of continents more accurately. The African Union has backed the projection as part of a wider campaign to change how Africa is represented on commonly used maps.
Why Africa wants the map changed
For supporters, the issue goes beyond cartography.
African campaigners and officials argue that maps can influence how people understand the importance and scale of different parts of the world. Togo’s Foreign Minister Robert Dussey summarized the argument before the vote by saying: “A fair world begins with a fair map.”
The campaign argues that the traditional projection can contribute to a misleading perception of Africa as smaller and less significant than it actually is.
The resolution therefore encourages UN member states, international organizations and others to promote maps that represent continental areas more accurately.
What changes now?
The vote does not legally ban the Mercator projection. The resolution is non-binding and instead encourages a shift toward more accurate equal-area maps.
Importantly, the change is not intended to eliminate Mercator for every purpose. The Togolese government said the resolution does not challenge the projection’s continued use for maritime and aerial navigation, where it remains useful.
The United States opposed the resolution, arguing that the General Assembly should focus on international peace, prosperity and other major global problems rather than what Washington described as an ideological agenda surrounding map projections.
For Africa, however, supporters see the vote as more than a technical change to a classroom map. It is an effort to correct a familiar visual distortion and ensure that the world’s second-largest continent is represented closer to its actual geographic scale.
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