The United Nations General Assembly has voted overwhelmingly to support a new approach to world mapping that more accurately represents the size of Africa and other continents.
The resolution, sponsored by Togo and backed by the African Union, was approved on Friday, September 4, with 164 countries voting in favour, six abstaining and the United States voting against.
The resolution promotes the Equal Earth projection, a map developed in 2018 that represents the relative surface areas of continents more accurately than the widely used Mercator projection.
The Mercator projection, developed by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator in the 16th century, was designed primarily for navigation. However, it significantly enlarges areas farther from the Equator while making regions around the Equator appear proportionally smaller.
One of the most striking examples is Greenland, which can appear almost comparable in size to Africa on a Mercator map. In reality, Africa is about 14 times larger than Greenland.
The Equal Earth projection reduces this distortion and gives Africa a visual size much closer to its actual land area.
Togo leads campaign
Togo spearheaded the initiative as part of a wider African Union-backed campaign to encourage governments, schools, international organisations and technology companies to use more geographically accurate maps.
Togo’s Foreign Minister Robert Dussey said the campaign was about correcting a longstanding distortion rather than attacking any particular region.
“A fair world begins with a fair map,” Dussey said ahead of the vote.
Togo plans to update its school geography materials before the end of 2026 and intends to work with other African countries, international organisations and technology companies on wider adoption of the Equal Earth projection.
The campaign argues that maps do more than provide geographical information because repeated visual representations can influence how people understand the relative importance and scale of different parts of the world.
Resolution is not legally binding
Despite the historic vote, the decision does not ban the Mercator projection.
The UN resolution is non-binding and encourages governments and institutions to promote projections that represent the world’s land masses more accurately. The Mercator projection can continue to be used, particularly for navigation, where its properties remain useful.
The Equal Earth projection is instead expected to gain greater prominence in areas such as education, media and public-facing maps.
US votes against
The United States was the only country to vote against the resolution.
US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz criticised the initiative, describing it as an ideological exercise and arguing that the General Assembly should focus on issues such as international peace and security.
The US position contrasted sharply with that of France, which announced on Friday that it would move away from the Mercator projection in favour of other maps that more accurately represent surface areas.
Ukraine also abstained, citing concerns about how the Equal Earth map represents Ukrainian territory currently occupied by Russia.
What changes now?
The UN vote does not mean that every map in the world will immediately change.
Instead, it gives international backing to efforts to promote more accurate representations of continental size. Togo wants the change to reach school textbooks, classrooms, media organisations and digital mapping platforms.
