UN votes to replace Mercator world map with one showing Africa’s true size

The UN General Assembly on Friday voted to replace the traditional world map with one that more accurately shows the size of Africa.

The “Correct the Map” resolution was sponsored by Togo and backed by African Union members. It was passed with support from 164 nations, including France and the UK. The United States was the only country to vote against it, while six others abstained.

Although the vote is non-binding, it is expected to change the maps used by institutions around the world.

At the centre of the debate is the Mercator map, which has been in common use since the 16th century. It was designed in 1569 by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator to help European explorers navigate the globe.

According to the BBC, distortion is unavoidable because it is impossible to perfectly represent a globe on a two-dimensional chart, so compromises have to be made.

The report says the Mercator map accounts for the curvature of the Earth by making countries near the equator appear smaller than they are, while countries near the poles appear larger. As a result, Africa is shown as roughly the same size as Greenland, even though it is in fact 14 times larger.

Critics say this minimises the development needs and potential of countries near the equator.

To address this, a team of cartographers created the Equal Earth projection in 2018, an equal-area map. In February, the AU’s 54 member states adopted it, saying it “more accurately represents the sizes of all continents, particularly Africa”.

Campaigners have long pushed for the change. Online group #CorrectTheMap said: “You could fit the United States, China, India, Japan, Mexico and much of Europe into Africa and still have land to spare.”

Africa No Filter, one of the groups behind the campaign, said the misrepresentation was more than a technical issue.

“Africa’s misrepresentation on world maps is not just a cartographic error – it’s a narrative issue,” Lerato Mogoatlhe from the organisation told the BBC.

She said the campaign was part of efforts to stop the “world’s longest misinformation and disinformation” about Africa.

Ahead of Friday’s vote, Togo’s Foreign Minister Robert Dussey told Reuters: “A fair world begins with a fair map.”

Speaking at a UN briefing earlier, Dussey said: “A map is never neutral. It shapes perceptions, influences how the place of peoples and continents in the world is understood.”

He was backed by French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot, who said his ministry would stop using the Mercator map.

“Changing the map obviously doesn’t change the world. But correcting a representation that distorts it is already an act of truth,” Barrot said.

The US opposed the resolution. Yaryna Ferencevych, a US representative at the UN, said the focus should be on genuine problems of international peace, prosperity, or good relations, rather than debating map projects from the 16th Century.

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