The United Nations General Assembly has voted overwhelmingly in favour of a resolution encouraging the use of world maps that more accurately represent the relative size of Africa and other continents.
The “Correct the Map” resolution, sponsored by Togo and backed by members of the African Union, was supported by 164 countries, including France and the United Kingdom. The United States was the only country to vote against the resolution, while Estonia, Georgia, Lithuania, Moldova, Serbia and Ukraine abstained.
Although the resolution is non-binding, it encourages governments, schools, international institutions and technology companies to move away from map projections that significantly distort the relative size of countries and continents. The campaign has focused particularly on the Mercator projection, which has been widely used since the 16th century.
Designed in 1569 by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator to assist navigation, the projection preserves angles and directions but significantly enlarges land masses closer to the poles while making areas around the equator appear relatively smaller.
As a result, Greenland can appear similar in size to Africa on a Mercator map, despite Africa covering roughly 14 times more land. Supporters of the resolution argue that such distortions have influenced perceptions of Africa’s geographical importance, population, resources and economic potential.
In 2018, cartographers developed the Equal Earth projection, an equal-area map designed to represent the relative sizes of continents and countries more accurately. The African Union’s 54 member states adopted the projection in February, saying it “more accurately represents the sizes of all continents, particularly Africa.”
Campaign group #CorrectTheMap has highlighted the continent’s scale, saying: “You could fit the United States, China, India, Japan, Mexico and much of Europe into Africa and still have land to spare.” Ahead of Friday’s General Assembly vote, Togolese Foreign Minister Robert Dussey said the campaign was about correcting long-standing perceptions created by distorted maps. “A fair world begins with a fair map,” Dussey told Reuters.
Speaking earlier at a UN briefing, he said: “A map is never neutral. It shapes perceptions, influences how the place of peoples and continents in the world is understood.” Dussey also said a more accurate map “does not change the world’s geography, it changes how we see the world.”
The resolution describes correcting cartographic distortions as an act of “cognitive justice and memorial reparation” and specifically refers to Equal Earth as an example of a projection that more accurately preserves relative land area. It does not ban the Mercator projection but encourages the use of Equal Earth and other equal-area projections while promoting education about the limitations involved in representing a spherical planet on a flat surface.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot backed the initiative and said his ministry planned to stop using the Mercator projection for its world maps. “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 United States opposed the resolution, arguing that the General Assembly should focus on more pressing international issues. US representative Yaryna Ferencevych said the measure “mocked the work and purpose” of the General Assembly. “Instead of focusing on genuine problems of international peace, prosperity, or good relations, this body is debating map projects from the 16th Century, and their role in promoting reparations and ‘cognitive justice’,” she said. Washington also criticised what it described as the broader ideological framing of the proposal, particularly its references to reparations and cognitive justice.
Ukraine, while expressing support for addressing historical cartographic distortions affecting Africa and other parts of the Global South, raised concerns about how some Equal Earth maps depict Ukrainian territories occupied by Russia. Supporters of the campaign, however, argue that the issue extends beyond cartography.
“Africa’s misrepresentation on world maps is not just a cartographic error, it’s a narrative issue,” Lerato Mogoatlhe of Africa No Filter, one of the groups involved in the campaign, told the BBC. She said correcting the representation formed part of efforts to challenge what she described as the “world’s longest misinformation and disinformation” about Africa.
Kenyan geographer Kioko Muendo similarly argued that distorted maps can influence wider perceptions of the continent. “Maps are more than just guides for travellers, they shape how regions are perceived politically and economically,” he told the BBC.
Supporters of the resolution say greater use of equal-area projections would provide a more accurate visual representation of Africa and other regions near the equator while helping people understand that every two-dimensional world map involves some form of compromise or distortion.