Criticism of conventional maps: UN backs reform of the world map at Togo’s request

The United Nations has voted to promote a new world map that presents Africa’s size more accurately, in a move Togo described as a challenge to the way the world has long been represented. The resolution, titled “Correct the map,” won support from 164 countries. Six abstained, while the United States stood alone in opposing it.

The vote is not legally binding. It calls on governments, schools, international organizations and technology companies to use the Equal Earth projection and other equal-area maps when relative size matters. It does not prohibit the Mercator projection, which remains the most widely used world map internationally.

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Historic moment: The world has decided to correct the map.

The Mercator projection was developed by Gerardus Mercator in 1569 for navigation. Its creators knew that it did not preserve the true size of countries. Because the three-dimensional Earth is projected onto a rectangular surface, areas appear increasingly larger the farther they lie from the equator. Greenland can look comparable in size to Africa on some maps, although Africa’s area is nearly 14 times larger.

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It is about justice, dignity, equality and how we represent our world.

Togo’s Foreign Minister Robert Dussey called the vote a “historic moment” and said the decision reached beyond cartography. “It is about justice, dignity, equality and how we represent our world,” he wrote on X. In his view, correcting the map also means correcting how people see the world.

The African Union had already criticized the Mercator projection, saying it gives an inaccurate impression of Africa’s size that affects schools, the media and politics. The United States rejected the initiative as part of a radical ideological project.

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Correcting the map means correcting the way we see the world.