The United Nations Votes to Correct the World Map to Better Reflect Africa’s True Size.

The United Nations General Assembly has overwhelmingly endorsed an African-led initiative calling for a more accurate representation of the world’s continents, particularly Africa, in maps used for education, institutions and public communication.

The resolution, titled “Correct the Map: Rebalancing global cartographic representation and promoting equitable representation of the world’s regions, particularly Africa,” was adopted on Friday, 4 September 2026, by 164 votes in favour to one against, with six countries abstaining. The vote was held during the General Assembly’s 114th plenary meeting.

The United States was the only country to vote against the resolution, while Estonia, Georgia, Lithuania, Moldova, Serbia and Ukraine abstained. The resolution does not legally ban the centuries-old Mercator projection. Instead, it encourages governments, schools, international organisations and technology companies to consider equal-area projections, including the Equal Earth projection, when accurate comparisons of the size of continents are important.

Why Africa’s Size Has Become a Global Debate

At the centre of the debate is the Mercator projection, developed by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator in 1569. Mercator’s map was designed primarily for navigation. Its major advantage is that lines representing constant compass bearings can be drawn as straight lines, making it particularly useful for sailors.

However, the projection significantly distorts the apparent size of landmasses as they move farther from the Equator. Countries and regions in northern and southern high latitudes appear much larger than they actually are, while areas around the Equator appear relatively smaller.

One of the most frequently cited examples is Greenland, which can appear comparable in size to Africa on a Mercator map. In reality, Africa is approximately 14 times larger than Greenland.

The distortion has prompted decades of debate among cartographers, educators and advocates about whether the widespread use of Mercator inadvertently influences how people perceive the relative importance and scale of different regions of the world.

Togo Leads African Push for a Different Map

The initiative was spearheaded by Togo and backed by African Union member states. Togolese Foreign Minister Robert Dussey argued that maps are more than technical tools because they influence how people understand the world.

“A fair world begins with a fair map,” Dussey said ahead of the vote, according to Reuters. He also argued that maps influence education, imagination and collective perceptions, making cartographic representation an issue with broader historical and political implications.

The African-led campaign has promoted the Equal Earth projection, an equal-area map developed in 2018. Unlike Mercator, Equal Earth is designed to preserve the relative areas of continents and countries more accurately. The African Union’s 54 member states adopted the Equal Earth projection in February, describing it as a representation that more accurately reflects the sizes of the world’s continents, particularly Africa.

‘A Map Is Never Neutral’

Supporters of the resolution say the issue goes beyond cartography. They argue that generations of people have grown up seeing maps in which Africa appears visually smaller than it really is, while countries and territories at higher latitudes appear disproportionately large.

Dussey said the campaign was not intended to condemn Mercator or eliminate its legitimate use in navigation. Instead, supporters want institutions to recognise that different maps serve different purposes. An equal-area map may be more appropriate when comparing the geographical size of continents, while Mercator remains useful for particular navigational applications. The resolution itself recognises that no flat map can perfectly reproduce the Earth’s curved surface. Every projection involves compromises involving area, shape, distance or direction.

France Announces Move Away From Mercator

The debate received additional momentum from France. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot announced that the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs would abandon the Mercator projection in its diplomatic uses in favour of representations better suited to accurately displaying land areas.

France’s Foreign Ministry said the decision was intended to promote a more balanced representation of the world. Barrot argued that while changing a map does not change the world itself, correcting a representation that distorts geographical reality can contribute to a more accurate understanding of it.

The decision represents a significant symbolic development because France is among the major European countries whose territories appear visually enlarged relative to equatorial regions on a Mercator map.

United States Rejects the Initiative

Washington took a sharply different position. The United States opposed the resolution, with its representative arguing that the initiative had moved beyond cartography into what Washington regarded as a broader ideological agenda.

The US representative criticised references to concepts including “cognitive justice” and “memorial reparation”, arguing that the General Assembly should concentrate on issues directly related to international peace, prosperity and relations between nations. The disagreement highlights the political dimension that has emerged around what might otherwise appear to be a technical debate about map projections.

Ukraine Raises Border Concerns

The resolution also encountered concerns from some European countries about how alternative projections could portray disputed territories. Ukraine supported efforts to address historical distortions affecting Africa and other parts of the Global South but expressed concerns about how some Equal Earth maps portray Ukrainian territory currently occupied by Russia.

The European Union similarly supported the resolution while stressing that the initiative concerns the relative size of landmasses, not sovereignty, territorial status or internationally recognised borders.

What Will Actually Change?

The UN resolution is non-binding. It does not prohibit the Mercator projection, nor does it require every country, school or technology company to immediately replace existing maps.

Instead, it encourages greater use of equal-area projections where representing the relative size of continents matters.

That distinction is important. Mercator will continue to have legitimate uses, particularly in navigation and certain digital applications. At the same time, institutions may increasingly turn to projections such as Equal Earth when teaching geography or illustrating the actual comparative size of continents.

Togo has also indicated plans to update its school geography materials as part of its campaign to promote more accurate cartographic representation.

Africa’s Map — and Africa’s Place in the World

For many African advocates, the significance of Friday’s vote extends beyond geography. Africa is the world’s second-largest continent by land area and is home to more than 1.4 billion people. Yet supporters of the campaign argue that its visual representation on many familiar world maps has long failed to communicate its true geographical scale.

The campaign therefore connects cartography with broader questions about historical representation, education and power. The argument is not that changing a map will automatically transform Africa’s economic or political circumstances. Rather, advocates believe that how the world is represented can influence how people understand the world.

The UN vote has now given that argument considerable international backing. With 164 countries supporting the resolution, the message from the General Assembly is clear: when the purpose is to compare the actual size of continents, the world should use maps that do not systematically distort those proportions.

Africa is not getting bigger. The map is simply being asked to show Africa as big as it really is.

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