The United Nations General Assembly has approved a resolution backing a new world map designed to present countries and continents according to their actual relative sizes.
The resolution, titled “Correct the Map,” was sponsored by African Union member states and the Bahamas. It received overwhelming support, with 164 countries voting in favour, six abstaining and only the United States voting against.
The initiative seeks to address what its supporters describe as a long-standing distortion in the way the world is visually represented, particularly the perceived size of Africa.
The UN said the distortions associated with the widely used Mercator projection contribute to a “symbolic minimization” of Africa and other regions in the global imagination.
The Mercator projection, developed by European cartographer Gerardus Mercator in 1569, remains popular, particularly for navigation, because it preserves constant compass bearings.
However, its representation of land areas becomes increasingly distorted away from the equator.
As a result, countries and territories in the northern and southern extremes appear considerably larger than they actually are.
For instance, Greenland can appear comparable in size to Africa on a Mercator map, despite Africa being about 14 times larger than Greenland. Greenland is, in reality, roughly the size of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Critics have also argued that the projection’s visual emphasis on Europe and other Western regions, including North America, has reinforced an unbalanced perception of global importance.
The UN resolution states “with concern that this distortion contributes to minimizing the perceived sizes of Africa, Latin America and South Asia, and perpetuating an unbalanced view of the world.”
It further argues that the distortions “contribute to minimizing the extent of socioeconomic realities, infrastructure needs, development potential and prosperity in the Southern regions, and that they can fuel prejudices in the environmental, geopolitical and security fields.”
The resolution recommends replacing the Mercator projection with the Equal Earth projection, which was designed to represent the relative surface areas of the world’s regions more accurately.
Under the Equal Earth projection, Africa occupies a significantly larger visual space, while Europe and Greenland appear smaller.
Brazil and other parts of South America also take on a more proportionate appearance.
The Equal Earth projection was introduced at the 2018 North American Cartographic Information Society conference.
France has also announced its support for the campaign. Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said Friday that France “will abandon the Mercator projection” and move towards maps that provide a more accurate representation of countries’ surface areas.
“The United States, Russia and China take on a disproportionate visual prominence compared to Africa, Latin America or southeast Asia,” Barrot said, adding that “distortions eventually take root in perceptions” and that “the time has come to correct them.”
The UN vote followed the African Union’s adoption of the Equal Earth map in March.
Togo, representing the AU, subsequently urged UN member states in April to adopt the projection, leading to the preparation of the draft resolution and consultations in July.
Speaking in March, Amma Twum-Amoah, commissioner for the AU’s Department of Health, Humanitarian Affairs and Social Development, said, “Africa, once diminished on maps, now insists on being seen at its true scale – geographically, historically, morally, culturally, economically, diplomatically and globally,”
New Zealand has similarly criticised the traditional presentation of the world.
In a 2018 tourism campaign featuring then-Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, the country joked that “New Zealand is disappearing off the world maps” because of its position at the bottom-right corner of many maps.
The Equal Earth projection offers different layouts, including one that places Oceania at the centre rather than Greenwich, London, which has traditionally served as a major reference point for global time and geography.
Major digital mapping platforms, including Google Maps, still use a version of the Mercator projection.
The UN resolution therefore encourages technology companies to work with member states and regional organisations towards adopting more geographically accurate map projections.
