UN Backs Equal Earth Map Showing Africa's True Size Over Mercator in Landslide Vote as US Stands Alone

UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. General Assembly has endorsed a resolution urging the world to move away from the centuries-old Mercator map in favor of projections that more accurately show the true size of continents, particularly Africa, with the United States casting the only vote against it.

The resolution, sponsored by Togo and backed by members of the African Union, passed 164 to 1 with six abstentions. Serbia, Estonia, Georgia, Lithuania, Moldova and Ukraine abstained.

The measure encourages governments, international organizations, schools and technology companies to promote maps such as the Equal Earth projection, which preserves the relative size of land masses, and to teach the limitations of flat maps in representing a round planet.

What the resolution does, and doesn't do

The resolution is not legally binding. It does not ban the Mercator projection or require countries to adopt a replacement.

Togo's foreign ministry emphasized that the measure "in no way challenges the use of the Mercator projection for maritime and aerial navigation, for which it remains fully suited."

Instead, it calls for the use of equal-area maps in settings where relative size matters, such as classrooms, public displays and scientific work. It also urges cooperation among U.N. agencies, regional organizations, academic institutions, think tanks and technology firms to strengthen mapping capabilities and support research, especially in developing countries and across Africa.

The resolution itself acknowledges that no flat map can perfectly represent the curved surface of the Earth.

The problem with Mercator

The Mercator projection was created in 1569 by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator to help European sailors navigate. Because it preserves angles and direction, it allowed navigators to plot straight-line courses at sea, a major advance at the time.

But the design comes at a cost. To flatten the globe, the Mercator projection stretches areas farther from the equator, greatly enlarging regions near the poles such as North America, Europe and Greenland while shrinking areas near the equator, including Africa and South America.

On a Mercator map, Greenland and Africa appear roughly the same size. In reality, Africa is about 14 times larger than Greenland.

Despite those distortions, Mercator remains the most widely used world map, appearing in classrooms, textbooks and many online mapping services.

Critics argue the map's continued dominance has shaped how people perceive the world, visually exaggerating the size and importance of Western nations while making Africa and other regions appear smaller and more peripheral.

The Equal Earth alternative

The Equal Earth projection, introduced in 2018, takes a different approach. It sacrifices some accuracy in shape and direction to preserve the correct relative area of countries and continents.

Advocates say that makes it better suited for education and for displaying data such as population density, climate patterns and resource distribution, where accurately representing size is essential.

The projection displays the world with curved edges that reflect the Earth's shape, and shows Africa at its true scale relative to other continents.

African-led campaign

The vote was the culmination of an African-led campaign to challenge the dominance of the Mercator map. Supporters argue that how the continent is depicted affects how it is perceived globally, including in education, media and international affairs.

Togo has said it plans to update its school geography materials by the end of this year. Togolese Foreign Minister Robert Dussey told Reuters that the country hopes to make the change in its classrooms by year's end.

Several other countries welcomed the resolution's adoption and urged broader use of equal-area maps.

US calls it 'radical ideological project'

The United States was the lone country to vote against the measure, dismissing it as politically motivated.

The U.S. representative said the resolution promoted an "ideological agenda" and was a distraction from the "genuine problems of international peace, prosperity or good relations."

Washington objected in particular to the resolution's references to reparations and "cognitive justice," saying the measure could not be separated from what it described as a broader political effort.

"The United States clearly sees it cannot be separated from the much larger and more radical ideological project it belongs to," the U.S. representative said.

The U.S. delegate also described initiatives like the resolution as "barnacles on our work here and the reason this institution is losing its credibility."

The U.S. stance reflects the broader approach of President Donald Trump's administration toward the United Nations, which has included skepticism of initiatives it views as ideological and pullbacks from several U.N. bodies.

Broader debate over representation

For many African nations, the map resolution is tied to a wider push to address historical inequities, including the legacy of colonialism. Supporters argue that visual representations of the world can reinforce outdated ideas about power and importance.

Opponents of that framing say the choice of map projection is a technical matter rather than a political one, noting that every projection involves trade-offs and that Mercator retains real practical value for navigation.

Cartographers have long debated the merits of different projections. Many educators and mapmakers already use alternatives such as the Robinson, Winkel Tripel or Equal Earth projections for world maps, while Mercator-based systems remain common in digital navigation because they preserve local shapes and angles.

Because the resolution is nonbinding, its impact will depend on whether governments, schools, publishers and technology companies choose to follow its recommendations.

Advocates hope the vote will encourage education ministries and mapmakers to adopt equal-area projections more widely. But the Mercator map is unlikely to disappear anytime soon, given its continued use in navigation and its deep roots in classrooms and online platforms around the world.