New York: The United Nations General Assembly has backed a campaign led by African countries to promote world maps that more accurately represent the relative size of continents, challenging the widespread use of the Mercator projection.
The resolution, known as “Correct the Map”, was adopted on September 4 by 164 countries. The United States was the only country to vote against it, while six countries abstained.
The six countries that abstained were Estonia, Georgia, Lithuania, Moldova, Serbia and Ukraine.
Togo introduced the resolution on behalf of the African Group as part of an African Union campaign to encourage more accurate cartographic representation, particularly of Africa.
It promotes the use of equal area map projections, including the Equal Earth projection, which represents the relative size of continents more accurately than the Mercator projection.
The UN decision does not ban the Mercator projection or require every country to adopt Equal Earth. The resolution is not legally binding and does not challenge the continued use of Mercator for maritime and aerial navigation, where the projection remains useful.
The Mercator projection was developed by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator and published in 1569. It became widely used because of its usefulness for navigation.
One of its main limitations is that it distorts the relative size of land areas. The distortion becomes greater towards the poles, making regions in northern parts of the world appear much larger than they are compared with areas closer to the Equator.
One of the best known examples is Greenland. On a Mercator map, Greenland can appear close in size to Africa. In reality, Africa is about 14 times larger than Greenland.
The Equal Earth projection, developed in 2018, is designed to preserve the relative areas of continents more accurately. It is one of the projections promoted by the campaign, but it has not become a single mandatory world map for all countries.
The campaign has been led by Togo, with support from the African Union. Togo's Foreign Minister Robert Dussey has described the initiative as an effort to promote a fairer representation of the world.
“A fair world begins with a fair map,” Dussey said before the UN vote.
Togo plans to change its school geography materials by the end of 2026. Dussey has also said the country will encourage other governments, schools, international organisations and technology companies to consider moving away from the widespread use of the Mercator projection.
The campaign is also expected to involve companies working with mapping, GPS and other location based technologies.
Supporters of the initiative argue that the way the world is represented on maps can influence how people understand the size and importance of different regions. The campaign has also been linked to wider African efforts to address the legacy of the colonial period.
Dussey has said the initiative is not intended as an attack on Europe or any other civilisation.
The United States was the only country to oppose the resolution. It argued that the measure promoted an ideological agenda and distracted from what it described as genuine problems involving international peace, prosperity and relations between countries.
France has also announced a separate move away from the Mercator projection.
On September 4, French Foreign Minister Jean Noël Barrot announced that the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs would abandon the Mercator projection in its diplomatic uses. France said it would use map representations suited to different purposes and more faithful to actual land areas.
The French decision reflects a broader point in the debate. There is no single map projection that is suitable for every purpose. Different projections involve different advantages and limitations, and cartographers choose them according to what a map is intended to show.
The United Nations itself does not have one prescribed projection for all of its maps. Different projections can be used for different purposes.
The overwhelming vote in the General Assembly gives the campaign significant international support, but the practical impact will depend on what governments, schools, mapping organisations and technology companies do next.
For now, the Mercator projection remains in use around the world. The UN resolution instead represents a major international push for wider use of maps that provide a more accurate picture of the relative size of Africa and other regions.
The debate is therefore not simply about replacing one map with another. It is also about how the way the world is drawn can shape people's understanding of geography and the relative scale of different parts of the planet.