The world map is changing after 164 countries back Africa-led initiative

A map projection used for centuries has become the focus of a United Nations debate over how the world’s continents are perceived. An Africa-led “Correct the Map” initiative won 164 votes in the UN General Assembly, while six countries abstained and the United States was the only country to vote against it.

The resolution seeks to encourage maps that represent the actual relative size of countries and continents more accurately. It targets distortions that can make Africa, Latin America and South Asia appear smaller than they are, potentially shaping perceptions of their economic, geopolitical and development potential.

At the center of the debate is the Mercator projection, developed by European cartographer Gerardus Mercator in 1569. It remains widely used because it is practical for maritime navigation, but transferring the curved surface of the Earth onto a flat map makes landmasses appear increasingly larger toward the poles.

On a Mercator map, Greenland can appear close in size to Africa. In reality, Africa is about 14 times larger than Greenland, while Greenland is approximately the same size as the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The UN resolution does not call for the Mercator projection to be banned. Instead, it promotes the use of alternative projections that show the relative areas of countries and continents more accurately. It also says distortions can reinforce bias in environmental, geopolitical and security discussions.

The resolution highlights the Equal Earth projection, introduced in 2018. It reduces the extreme differences in scale seen in Mercator maps, making Africa appear much larger and Greenland considerably smaller. Europe also occupies less space than it does on a Mercator map. The initiative therefore challenges not navigation itself, but the idea that one familiar visual representation should define how the world is understood.