For generations, schoolchildren around the world have looked at the same familiar world map and learned where countries and continents are located.
But there is a problem with the map many of us grew up seeing: it does not accurately represent the relative size of the world’s land masses.
On September 4, 2026, the United Nations General Assembly took a significant step toward changing that.
The General Assembly adopted the “Correct the Map” resolution, an African-led initiative encouraging governments, educational institutions, international organizations and other users of general-purpose maps to consider projections that represent the relative size of continents more accurately.
The vote was overwhelmingly supported, passing 164 to 1, with six abstentions. The United States was the only country to vote against the resolution.
At the heart of the discussion is a deceptively simple question:
Does the world map we use actually show the world as it is?
The answer depends on which map projection we use.
And under a more area-accurate projection such as Equal Earth, Africa looks dramatically larger compared with Europe, Greenland and other northern regions.
What Is the UN’s “Correct the Map” Resolution?
The resolution, formally identified as A/80/L.104, is titled “Correct the Map: Rebalancing global cartographic representation and promoting equitable representation of the world’s regions, particularly Africa.”
The initiative was led by Togo on behalf of the African Group at the United Nations and was backed by the African Union.
Rather than simply changing a single official UN map, the resolution encourages greater use of cartographic projections that more accurately represent the relative areas of continents and countries.
The initiative is particularly focused on education, public communication and other situations where understanding the relative size of regions is important.
The resolution is not legally binding. It also does not prohibit the Mercator projection.
That distinction is important.
Mercator remains useful for particular purposes, especially navigation, because of the way it represents directions and bearings. The UN initiative is primarily about choosing more appropriate projections when the goal is to compare the actual areas of countries and continents.
Why Does Africa Look Smaller on the Traditional World Map?
To understand the controversy, we need to understand the Mercator projection.
Created by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator in 1569, the projection was developed primarily to assist maritime navigation.
It solved an important practical problem: sailors could use straight lines on the map to help maintain constant compass bearings.
But there was a trade-off.
The Earth is roughly spherical, while a conventional world map is flat. Whenever cartographers transform a globe into a flat map, something has to give.
Depending on the projection, maps can distort:
- Area
- Shape
- Distance
- Direction
- Position
The Mercator projection particularly exaggerates the size of regions as they get farther from the Equator and closer to the poles.
As a result, Greenland, northern Canada, Russia and parts of Europe can appear much larger than their actual land area relative to countries near the Equator.
Africa Is Far Larger Than It Looks on Mercator Maps
Perhaps the most striking example is Africa and Greenland.
On a traditional Mercator map, Greenland can appear surprisingly close in size to Africa.
In reality, they are nowhere near the same size.
Africa is roughly 14 times larger than Greenland.
Africa covers approximately 30 million square kilometres, while Greenland covers roughly 2.2 million square kilometres.
An equal-area projection makes that difference much easier to see.
This is one reason the “Correct the Map” campaign has attracted so much attention: the change is not about physically changing Africa. It is about changing the way its size is visually represented.
What Is the Equal Earth Projection?
One of the alternatives receiving attention is the Equal Earth projection.
Equal Earth was developed in 2018 by cartographers Tom Patterson, Bojan Šavrič and Bernhard Jenny.
Its central advantage is that it is an equal-area projection.
In simple terms, this means that the relative areas of countries and continents are represented much more accurately than they are in the Mercator projection.
That makes Equal Earth particularly useful when the purpose of a map is to understand the relative size of different regions.
Africa therefore appears much closer to its true proportional size, while Greenland, Europe and other high-latitude regions no longer appear disproportionately enormous.
However, Equal Earth is not a magical “perfect map.”
There is no way to flatten the entire spherical Earth onto a flat surface without some form of distortion.
The key difference is where the distortion occurs and what the map is designed to prioritize.
Why Can’t We Have a Completely Accurate Flat World Map?
This is one of the most important points in the entire debate.
The Earth is three-dimensional.
A flat sheet of paper—or a rectangular computer screen—is two-dimensional.
That means every global map projection involves compromises.
Some projections prioritize:
Area — showing countries and continents in their correct relative size.
Others prioritize:
Shape — keeping the outlines of land masses visually familiar.
Others prioritize:
Distance or direction — which can be especially important for navigation and specialized applications.
The Mercator projection prioritizes direction in a way that made it extremely valuable for navigation.
Equal Earth prioritizes relative area.
Neither approach makes the other “fake.”
They simply serve different purposes.
Why Does the UN Want to Change the Way We See the World?
Supporters of the resolution argue that maps are not merely technical tools.
They also influence how people visualize the world.
For generations, students have encountered maps in classrooms, textbooks, atlases, newspapers and digital platforms.
If one part of the world repeatedly appears dramatically larger while another appears much smaller, that visual impression can influence people’s intuitive understanding of geography.
African governments and organizations involved in the campaign argue that the continued widespread use of distorted maps can reinforce outdated perceptions of Africa’s geographical importance.
The African Union has described the initiative as part of a broader effort to promote more accurate and equitable cartographic representation.
This is why the debate has become larger than cartography.
It is also a debate about education, representation and historical perception.
Is the UN Actually “Changing the World Map”?
Not exactly.
This is where headlines can become misleading.
The UN resolution does not mean that every map in the world will suddenly change.
It does not outlaw Mercator.
It does not force Google, Apple, schools or governments to immediately replace every existing map.
Instead, the resolution encourages wider use of maps that better represent relative land areas, particularly where accurate comparison is important.
Think of it as an international recommendation rather than a worldwide cartographic law.
Its influence could nevertheless become significant if governments, publishers, schools and technology companies gradually adopt more area-accurate projections.
Why Did Togo Lead the Campaign?
The initiative has strong African backing, and Togo played a leading diplomatic role.
The campaign grew out of efforts within the African Union to encourage maps that represent Africa’s geographical size more accurately.
Togo subsequently brought the initiative to the United Nations on behalf of the African Group.
The campaign’s argument is straightforward:
If maps are being used to teach people about the world, they should provide as accurate a visual representation of the relative size of continents as practical.
The African Union has welcomed the UN vote as an important step toward more accurate global cartographic representation.
What Will Happen to Europe and North America?
If you compare a Mercator map with an equal-area projection, Africa isn’t the only region that changes.
Countries and regions at higher latitudes—including parts of Europe, North America and Russia—appear less exaggerated in relative area.
This can make the entire world look unfamiliar.
Europe, for example, may appear smaller than many people expect.
Greenland is perhaps the most dramatic example.
On Mercator, Greenland can look almost comparable to Africa.
On an equal-area projection, the enormous difference becomes obvious.
This does not mean Europe or North America are being “shrunk.”
Their actual land area has not changed.
The map is simply showing the proportions differently.
Will Google Maps and Other Digital Maps Change?
Not necessarily—and not immediately.
Digital mapping platforms use different projections depending on what the map is designed to do.
Navigation services have different requirements from educational world maps.
A map designed to help someone drive through a city does not need to make the same compromises as a classroom map showing the relative size of continents.
The UN resolution could, however, encourage institutions and technology companies to use more area-accurate projections in contexts where land-size comparisons are important.
That could eventually influence school textbooks, educational websites, news graphics, atlases and other general-purpose world maps.
Why the Mercator Map Is Still Useful
It would be inaccurate to describe the Mercator projection as simply a “wrong map.”
Mercator was designed for a particular purpose, and for that purpose it was highly useful.
Its ability to represent constant compass bearings as straight lines made it extremely valuable to sailors.
Even today, certain navigation and mapping applications continue to use Mercator-based systems because of their practical advantages.
The problem occurs when a projection designed for navigation is interpreted as though it were an accurate representation of the relative size of countries and continents.
That is where the distinction between purpose and appearance becomes important.
What Does This Mean for Schools?
Education could be one of the most visible areas affected by the campaign.
Imagine a geography classroom where students see an equal-area world map alongside the traditional Mercator projection.
They would immediately notice that:
- Africa is much larger than it appears on Mercator.
- Greenland is dramatically smaller relative to Africa.
- Northern regions are less visually exaggerated.
- The relative size of continents becomes easier to compare.
Togo has indicated plans to update its school geography materials, while advocates hope other countries will follow.
This could give students a more nuanced understanding of what maps actually represent.
Is the New Map More “Accurate”?
The answer is yes for some purposes, but not perfect for everything.
Equal Earth is more accurate than Mercator when the objective is to compare land areas.
But it still cannot preserve every geographical property at once.
For example, a map cannot simultaneously maintain perfect:
- Area
- Shape
- Distance
- Direction
- Scale
across the entire globe.
This is a fundamental limitation of representing a curved planet on a flat surface.
So the real lesson is not that one map is universally correct and another is universally wrong.
It is that different maps are designed for different jobs.
Could This Be About More Than Geography?
Absolutely.
The political and cultural dimension is one reason the issue has generated so much debate.
Supporters see the campaign as a correction to a longstanding visual imbalance and part of a broader effort to challenge historical perspectives associated with colonial-era representations.
Critics, meanwhile, argue that the UN should focus on more immediate global problems and question whether changing map projections should be treated as an international political issue.
The United States was the sole country to vote against the resolution, while six countries abstained.
The disagreement illustrates an important point:
Even something as seemingly neutral as a map can carry cultural and political meaning.
What the New World Map Really Changes
The most important change may not be the appearance of Africa itself.
It may be the way people understand geographical scale.
For someone who has spent years seeing Africa and Greenland portrayed as vaguely comparable in size, an equal-area map can be surprising.
The new representation makes the scale immediately obvious.
Africa is not a small continent sitting between Europe and the Atlantic.
It is enormous.
It is larger than the United States, China, India and several other major countries combined.
And its geographical size becomes much harder to overlook when the distortion of the Mercator projection is reduced.
5 Surprising Facts the New Map Makes Easier to Understand
1. Africa Is About 14 Times Larger Than Greenland
The Mercator projection can make the two appear deceptively similar in size.
2. Africa Is the Second-Largest Continent
It covers roughly 30 million square kilometres, making it one of the largest continuous land masses on Earth.
3. High-Latitude Regions Are Visually Exaggerated on Mercator
The farther a region is from the Equator, the more its apparent area is amplified.
4. No Flat World Map Is Perfect
Every projection makes compromises because Earth is spherical.
5. The Purpose of a Map Matters
A projection useful for navigation may not be the best choice for teaching students about relative land area.
What Happens Next?
The UN vote is only the beginning.
The resolution is non-binding, so its impact will depend largely on what governments, schools, publishers, international organizations and technology companies choose to do.
If enough institutions adopt equal-area projections for education and general communication, the visual image of the world presented to future generations could gradually change.
Students who grow up seeing Africa at a more accurate scale may develop a very different intuitive understanding of global geography.
At the same time, Mercator will likely remain relevant in applications where its particular properties are useful.
In other words, the future may not be about one map replacing another.
It may be about using the right map for the right purpose.
The Bigger Lesson: Maps Shape How We See the World
The UN’s “Correct the Map” resolution may initially sound like a technical debate between cartographers.
But it raises a much bigger question:
How much does the way we represent the world influence the way we understand it?
Maps are among the first tools through which many people learn about geography, countries and continents.
They don’t just show locations.
They create mental images.
The decision to encourage more accurate area representations therefore has significance beyond cartography. It challenges educators, publishers, governments and technology companies to think carefully about whether the maps they use are appropriate for the message they are trying to communicate.
The world itself has not changed.
Africa has not suddenly become bigger.
Greenland has not suddenly become smaller.
What is changing is the way we choose to see and represent the planet.
And perhaps that is the most interesting part of this entire story.
Frequently Asked Questions
What did the UN approve about the world map?
The UN General Assembly adopted the “Correct the Map” resolution, encouraging wider use of map projections that represent the relative size of continents more accurately. The resolution particularly promotes equal-area approaches such as Equal Earth.
Did the UN ban the Mercator projection?
No. The resolution is non-binding and does not ban Mercator. Mercator remains useful for navigation and other specialized purposes.
Why will Africa look bigger?
Africa will look larger relative to Europe, Greenland and other northern regions when shown using an equal-area projection because Mercator significantly exaggerates the apparent size of regions closer to the poles.
How much bigger is Africa than Greenland?
Africa is roughly 14 times larger than Greenland by area.
What is the Equal Earth projection?
Equal Earth is a modern equal-area world map projection designed to show continents and countries in more accurate relative proportions while keeping overall shapes reasonably recognizable.
Why was the Mercator projection created?
Gerardus Mercator developed the projection in the 16th century primarily for navigation. Its representation of direction made it particularly useful for maritime travel.
Will Google Maps stop using Mercator?
There is no automatic requirement for digital mapping companies to abandon Mercator. Different mapping applications use different projections depending on their technical and practical requirements.
Which countries supported the UN resolution?
The resolution received 164 votes in favour, while one country—the United States—voted against it and six countries abstained.
Does the new map show the Earth perfectly?
No. No flat map can perfectly preserve every property of the spherical Earth. Equal Earth is particularly useful when accurate comparison of land areas is the priority.
Final Thoughts
The UN’s “Correct the Map” resolution is about much more than making Africa look bigger.
It is a reminder that every map is a choice.
For centuries, the Mercator projection served an important navigational purpose. But when it is used to teach the relative size of continents, its distortions can create a misleading visual impression.
Equal-area projections offer another perspective—one that makes the enormous scale of Africa and other regions easier to understand.
Whether the UN initiative ultimately changes the maps used in classrooms, newsrooms and digital platforms remains to be seen.
But one thing is already clear:
The next time you look at a world map, remember that you are not looking at the Earth itself. You are looking at someone’s mathematical interpretation of it.
And sometimes, changing the map can change the way we see the world.
Disclaimer
This article is intended for informational and educational purposes. The UN resolution discussed above is non-binding and does not prohibit the Mercator projection. Different map projections are designed for different purposes, and no flat world map can represent every geographical property without distortion.
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