UN Vote Could Change World Maps, Making Some Countries Look Smaller

For centuries, the familiar world map has made Africa look far smaller than it really is. Now the UN General Assembly has backed an African-led effort to promote maps that show the relative size of continents more accurately.

The resolution won support from 164 countries. The United States cast the only opposing vote, calling the initiative part of a "radical ideological project." Estonia, Georgia, Lithuania, Moldova, Serbia and Ukraine abstained.

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radical ideological project

The change would make France, the United States and Russia appear smaller than they do on many familiar maps. The resolution does not prohibit the Mercator projection or impose a replacement, so the world's most widely used map format will remain in circulation.

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symbolic diminution

Mercator was developed by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator in 1569 for maritime navigation. Its straight lines preserve constant compass directions, which helps sailors plot routes, but the projection distorts area, increasingly so farther from the equator. Greenland, for example, can appear roughly comparable in size to Africa even though Africa is about 14 times larger. Northern Europe and North America also appear substantially enlarged relative to equatorial regions.

The resolution says these distortions contributed to Africa's "symbolic diminution" and an unbalanced view of the world. It describes correcting them as "an act of restoring cognitive justice and redressing the harm that occurred" and points to Equal Earth, developed in 2018, as a projection that better represents continental areas. Because the resolution is nonbinding, Mercator maps will not disappear.

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an act of restoring cognitive justice and redressing the harm that occurred