UN ditches Mercator map to adopt more accurate one reflecting Africa's true size
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The UN General Assembly on Friday voted to shift away from the 16th-century Mercator map, designed by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator, for a more accurate one reflecting the true size of continents. The resolution, spearheaded by several African countries and co-sponsored by France, was backed by 164 countries. The US voted against and six other states abstained.
By: FRANCE 24 The UN General Assembly on September 4, 2026 voted for a shift away from the 16th-century Mercator global map towards one more accurately reflecting continental size. © Screengrab equal-earth.com The United Nations General Assembly voted Friday for a resolution spearheaded by several African countries to adopt a map that makes their continent bigger while shrinking North America and Europe – aiming at "a more accurate representation" of world geography.
The resolution was backed by 164 countries while the United States voted against it and six other states abstained.
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The new map – known as the Equal Earth cartographic projection – "offers a more accurate representation of the sizes of continental landmasses and to this end is a relevant option for improving the accuracy of the cartographic representation of the world," the resolution says.
It urges member states to adopt the new map in place of the traditional Mercator projection, which was designed for maritime navigation by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator in 1569.
The foreign minister of Togo , which drove the resolution, said maps "shape our understanding of the world."
"They guide education , nourish the imagination, and influence collective perceptions. They are therefore never neutral, when they present a distorted image of our planet, they risk perpetuating inaccurate representation that are passed down through generation," Robert Dussey said at the UN.
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It inflated northern regions and compressed equatorial ones, making Europe and North America appear much larger, while shrinking Africa and South America .
A group of cartographers launched the Equal Earth projection in 2018. It makes Africa, Latin America , South Asia and Oceania appear vastly larger.
"Equal Earth preserves the relative surface areas of continents and, as much as possible, shows their shapes as they appear on a globe," one of the cartographers, Bojan Savric, told AFP in 2025.
The foreign ministry of France – which co-sponsored the resolution in support of the new map – announced Friday that it would abandon the Mercator projection.
In that map, "the United States, Russia and China take on a disproportionate visual prominence compared to Africa, Latin America or southeast Asia," while " Greenland appears almost as big as Africa," Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said.
"Changing maps obviously doesn't change the world," he acknowledged. "But correcting a distorted representation is already an act of truth."
The initiative comes as France is seeking to improve relations with Africa, particularly in former colonies with which it has prickly ties.
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