The United Nations General Assembly has overwhelmingly backed an Africa-led resolution calling for greater use of world maps that more accurately represent the relative size of continents, in a move aimed at addressing long-standing distortions associated with the widely used Mercator projection.
The resolution, spearheaded by Togo on behalf of the African Group, was adopted with 164 countries voting in favour, while the United States was the only country to vote against it. Six countries abstained.
The initiative promotes the use of more accurate equal-area projections, including the Equal Earth projection, which preserves the relative size of land masses more effectively than the Mercator projection.
The Mercator projection, developed in the 16th Century, was designed primarily for navigation. When used as a world map, however, it significantly enlarges areas farther from the Equator while making regions closer to the Equator appear smaller than they are.
The distortion is particularly striking in representations of Africa. The continent is more than 14 times larger than Greenland, although the two can appear relatively similar in size on conventional Mercator maps.
Togo has led the campaign at the United Nations, arguing that the way the world is represented on maps can influence perceptions of the relative importance and size of different regions.
The United States opposed the resolution, with its representative describing the measure as “superfluous”.
The resolution does not legally require countries, schools or technology companies to abandon the Mercator projection. Instead, it encourages governments, educational institutions, international organisations and technology platforms to promote more accurate representations of the world’s land masses.
The United Nations itself does not prescribe a single projection for all of its maps and uses several different projections depending on the purpose and geographical area being represented.
The vote nevertheless represents a significant diplomatic victory for the African-led campaign to “correct the map” and promote a more proportionate visual representation of Africa and other regions of the Global South.
