UN votes to adopt new world map that reflects Africa’s true size

The United Nations has voted to adopt a new world map that more accurately reflects countries’ true sizes, a resolution sponsored by African states to right a centuries-old wrong.

The “Correct the Map” resolution adopted by the UN general assembly on Friday aims to address a colonial-era injustice that has visually shrunk Africa for 450 years, shaping how the continent is perceived in media, education and policy around the world.

The resolution, put forward by African Union (AU) member states and the Bahamas, was backed by a vote of 164-1 with six abstentions.

Togo led the AU’s campaign to limit use of the widely-used Mercator map.

Developed in the 16th century by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator, the projection distorts the relative size of land masses by expanding those nearer the poles. For instance, it makes Greenland appear roughly the same size as Africa, even though Africa is about 14 times larger.

Some critics of the Mercator map believe it remains widely used because it visually exaggerates and centralises Western nations, perpetuating ideas of European superiority.

“A fair world begins with a fair map,” Togo’s Foreign Minister Robert Dussey told the Reuters news agency ahead of Friday’s vote.

The resolution promotes the Equal Earth projection, which more accurately portrays the size of the continents.