A centuries-old world map that makes Africa appear far smaller than it really is is facing a new challenge after the United Nations backed the wider use of a more geographically accurate alternative.
The UN General Assembly approved a non-binding resolution on Friday encouraging governments, schools, international organisations and technology companies to use the Equal Earth projection when comparing the sizes of countries and continents.
The resolution received support from 164 countries. The United States cast the only opposing vote, while six countries abstained.
Led by Togo and supported by other African states, the campaign challenges the widespread use of the Mercator projection, developed by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator in 1569 for maritime navigation.
While the Mercator map preserves directions and angles, it enlarges land masses closer to the poles and makes regions near the equator appear smaller. Greenland, for example, appears roughly comparable in size to Africa, although Africa is about 14 times larger.
Critics say that distortion has shaped generations of people’s understanding of the world, visually exaggerating the size of Europe and North America while diminishing Africa, Latin America and parts of Asia.
Togo’s Foreign Minister Robert Dussey said maps influence education, imagination and how people perceive the world. He described the campaign as an effort to promote both scientific accuracy and fairer global representation.
Developed in 2018, the Equal Earth projection preserves the relative size of land masses while maintaining a balanced and recognisable view of the world. It more clearly illustrates Africa’s vast scale: the United States, China, India, Japan, Mexico and much of Europe could fit within the continent.
The resolution does not seek to ban the Mercator projection, which remains useful for navigation. Instead, it calls for alternatives where accurate comparisons of land area are important.
Togo plans to begin changing maps in its schools by the end of this year.
The United States argued that the resolution promoted an ideological agenda and distracted from more urgent global issues. Supporters, however, called the vote a step towards correcting a geographical distortion inherited across generations.
