The United Nations General Assembly has endorsed the “Equal Earth” map projection following a resolution led by Togo and supported by the African Union.
The resolution, which passed 164–1, with six countries abstaining, encourages governments, schools, media organisations and international institutions to use equal-area maps when illustrating the relative size of continents. The United States was the only country to vote against the resolution.
The move seeks to address distortions associated with the Mercator projection, developed in 1569 primarily for navigation. The projection makes regions closer to the poles appear significantly larger than they are. As a result, Greenland can appear nearly comparable in size to Africa, despite Africa being roughly 14 times larger.
The Equal Earth projection presents land areas more proportionally, allowing Africa, South America and other regions closer to the equator to appear closer to their actual sizes.
However, the UN resolution does not ban the Mercator projection. Instead, it promotes the use of equal-area maps where accurately comparing the size of continents is important.
The development is therefore less about changing maps and more about improving how the world’s geography is visually represented and understood.
