The United Nations General Assembly has voted to promote a new approach to world maps that more accurately reflects the relative size of countries and continen...
The United Nations General Assembly has voted to promote a new approach to world maps that more accurately reflects the relative size of countries and continents, in a move led by African states to address distortions associated with the widely used Mercator projection.
The “Correct the Map” resolution was adopted on Friday by 164 votes to one, with six countries abstaining. The United States was the only country to vote against the resolution.
The resolution was put forward by African Union member states and the Bahamas, with Togo leading the African campaign. It calls for more equitable representations of the world, with particular attention to the way Africa and other regions are portrayed on maps.
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The campaign challenges the continued widespread use of the Mercator projection, developed in the 16th century by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator. The projection enlarges land areas as they become more distant from the Equator, resulting in significant differences between the visual size of regions and their actual areas.
One of the most commonly cited examples is Greenland, which can appear similar in size to Africa on a Mercator map despite Africa being about 14 times larger in actual area.
The resolution promotes the Equal Earth projection as an alternative that more accurately represents the relative size of continents. The projection is an equal-area map, meaning that areas are represented in proportion to their actual size.
Togo has led the campaign on behalf of the African Union. Foreign Minister Robert Dussey described the initiative as an effort to correct the way Africa has been represented globally. “A fair world begins with a fair map,” he said ahead of the vote.
Supporters of the resolution argue that map distortions have consequences beyond geography because maps are widely used in schools, media, businesses and digital platforms. The resolution describes the effects of disproportionate representations as contributing to the “symbolic minimization” of Africa and other regions.
Moky Makura, executive director of advocacy organisation Africa No Filter, which is involved in the Correct the Map campaign, welcomed the vote and said the focus would now shift towards wider adoption of more accurate maps.
“We want to see accurate maps in schools, textbooks, newsrooms, businesses and on the digital platforms billions of people use every day,” Makura said.
The campaign has also received support from France. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said France would move away from the Mercator projection and use map representations better suited to different purposes and more faithful to actual surface areas.
The United States opposed the resolution, describing it as promoting an ideological agenda and arguing that it distracted from what it considered more important international issues. It was the only country to vote against the measure.
The resolution is not legally binding. It also does not seek to prevent the use of the Mercator projection for maritime and aerial navigation, where the projection remains suited to its intended purposes.
The vote therefore does not mean that every existing world map will immediately be replaced. Its impact will depend on whether governments, schools, publishers, international organisations and technology companies choose to adopt projections that show the relative sizes of regions more accurately.
Togo has said it intends to change its school geography materials and encourage other governments, educational institutions, international organisations and technology companies to move towards the Equal Earth projection.
The campaign is part of wider African efforts to address the legacies of colonial-era representations. Togo has said the initiative is not intended as an attack on Europe or another civilisation, but as an effort to address the effects of a map that has been widely used for centuries.
The adoption of the resolution gives the campaign international backing, although its practical effect will depend on how widely the recommended map projections are adopted. For supporters, the objective is to ensure that maps used in education, media and digital services present the relative size of Africa and other regions more accurately.
