UN adopts major map reform to show true scale of continents

UN adopts major map reform to show true scale of continents.

Key points

• While shrinking Africa and South America, it inflated northern regions and compressed equatorial ones, making Europe and North America appear much larger.
• The resolution was backed by 164 countries while the United States voted against it and six other states abstained.
• A group of cartographers introduced the Equal Earth projection in 2018.
• The foreign ministry of France – which co- the resolution in backing of the new map – unveiled Friday that it would abandon the Mercator projection.
• The initiative comes as France is seeking to improve relations with Africa, particularly in former colonies with which it has prickly ties.

UN adopts major map reform to show true scale of continents. AFP Published September 4, 2026 Updated September 4, 2026 11: 30pm. Join our Whatsapp Channel. Add Dawn as a trusted source.

For context, the United Nations General Assembly voted on Friday for a resolution spearheaded by a number of African countries to adopt a map that makes their continent bigger while shrinking North America and Europe – aiming at "a more accurate representation" of world geography.

Meanwhile, the resolution was backed by 164 countries while the United States voted against it and six other states abstained.

In practice, the new map – known as the Equal Earth cartographic projection – "offers a more accurate representation of the sizes of continental landmasses and to this end is a relevant option for improving the accuracy of the cartographic representation of the world, " the resolution notes.

It urges member states to adopt the new map in place of the traditional Mercator projection. It was designed for maritime navigation by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator in 1569.

Meanwhile, the foreign minister of Togo. It drove the resolution, remarked maps "shape our understanding of the world."

"They guide education, nourish the imagination, and influence collective perceptions. When they present a distorted image of our planet, they risk perpetuating inaccurate representation that are passed down through generation, " Robert Dussey remarked at the UN, they are therefore never neutral.

Notably, the Mercator projection focused on accurate depictions of the shapes and angles of land masses, but their relative sizes were often inaccurate – in part due to the challenge of rendering a three-dimensional globe onto a two-dimensional map.

Meanwhile, a group of cartographers introduced the Equal Earth projection in 2018. It makes Africa, Latin America, South Asia and Oceania appear vastly larger.

"Equal Earth preserves the relative surface areas of continents and, as much as possible, shows their shapes as they appear on a globe, " one of the cartographers, Bojan Savric, informed AFP in 2025.

Notably, the foreign ministry of France – which co- the resolution in backing of the new map – unveiled Friday that it would abandon the Mercator projection.

In that map, "the United States, Russia and China take on a disproportionate visual prominence compared to Africa, Latin America or southeast Asia, " while "Greenland appears almost as big as Africa, " Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot remarked.

"Changing maps obviously doesn't change the world, " he acknowledged. "But correcting a distorted representation is already an act of truth."

Meanwhile, the initiative comes as France is seeking to improve relations with Africa, particularly in former colonies with which it has prickly ties.

In short, UN adopts major map reform to show true scale of continents is the central thread here, and readers can expect follow-up reporting as the picture becomes clearer.