The United Nations General Assembly has approved a resolution urging a shift away from traditional world maps in favor of a projection that accurately portrays the size of the African continent. Sponsored by Togo and strongly advocated by members of the African Union, the measure passed with the support of 164 nations.
The vote addresses long-standing geographic distortions stemming from the Mercator map, a 16th-century cartographic creation originally designed to assist European maritime navigation. Because flattening a spherical globe onto a two-dimensional surface requires compromises, the Mercator projection drastically enlarges landmasses near the poles while shrinking regions closer to the equator. Consequently, the map portrays Africa as roughly the same size as Greenland, even though the African continent is actually fourteen times larger.
Advocates for the change argued that standardizing a distorted map for centuries has negatively influenced global perceptions of developing nations. Representatives from the online campaign group behind the initiative noted that the immense scale of Africa—capable of encompassing the United States, China, India, Japan, Mexico, and much of Europe combined—has been systematically minimized. Geographers and cultural analysts pointed out that these visual misrepresentations have historically downplayed the continent's true population, economic potential, and vast natural resources.
Togolese Foreign Minister Robert Dussey emphasized ahead of the vote that visual tools are never truly neutral and actively shape how global populations perceive the importance of different regions. France and the United Kingdom were among the major nations voting in favor of the initiative, with French officials confirming plans to phase out the Mercator projection within government ministries.
While the resolution is non-binding, it is expected to prompt international organizations, educational institutions, and public agencies around the world to update their cartographic standards. The United States was the sole member state to vote against the resolution, with a U.S. representative criticizing the debate as a distraction from pressing matters of international peace and security. Six other nations abstained from the vote.
The transition away from the Mercator format relies on alternatives such as the Equal Earth projection, developed by cartographers to preserve relative land sizes. African Union member states officially adopted this equal-area projection earlier in the year. Proponents of the updated map view the United Nations resolution as a crucial step toward correcting historical imbalances in global storytelling and geographic representation.
Reporting based on coverage first published by BBC News. Read the original report at BBC News.
