How big is Africa really? Why the UN voted to change the world map

UN approves new map showing Africa's true size. By Nils Adler and AFP.

Key points

• Combined, the four cover regarding 64 million sq km (24.7 million sq miles), more than 40 percent of the world's land surface.
• While shrinking Africa and South America, it inflated northern regions and compressed equatorial ones, making Europe and North America appear much larger.
• While six other countries – Serbia, Estonia, Georgia, Lithuania, Moldova and Ukraine – abstained, only the US voted against it.
• Oceania spans regarding 8.5 million sq km (3.3 million sq miles), almost all of it Australia.
• Europe, by comparison, is 10.2 million sq km (3.9 million sq miles).

UN approves new map showing Africa's true size. By Nils Adler and AFP. Published On 5 Sep 20265 Sep 2026.

In practice, the United Nations General Assembly has voted to back a resolution spearheaded by a number of African countries to adopt a map that indicates the continent as much bigger than it is on conventional world maps.

While the United States voted against it and six other states abstained, on Friday, the resolution aimed at "a more accurate representation" of continental landmasses on the globe was backed by 164 countries.

Meanwhile, the new map – known as the Equal Earth cartographic projection – "is a relevant option for improving the accuracy of the cartographic representation of the world", the resolution stated.

Foreign Minister Robert Dussey of Togo. It drove the resolution, remarked maps "guide education, nourish the imagination, and influence collective perceptions". "The resolution adopted today reaffirms African reality, " he continued.

But how does the new map differ from the traditional version, and why did the US object? What has the UN decided?

For context, the UN has pressed member states to adopt a new map in place of the centuries-old, traditional Mercator projection. It was designed for maritime navigation by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator in 1569.

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

While shrinking Africa and South America, it inflated northern regions and compressed equatorial ones, making Europe and North America appear much larger. How major are Africa, Latin America, South Asia and Oceania?

It does not look like it on the conventional Mercator map, but Africa is a giant among the world's continents at regarding 30.3 million square kilometres (11.7 million square miles).

It is sizeable enough to contain the US, China, India and most of Europe, yet on a Mercator map it looks roughly the same size as Greenland. It is actually concerning 14 times smaller than the continent.

Latin America covers roughly 20 million sq km (7.7 million sq miles), of which South America accounts for 17.8 million sq km (6.9 million sq miles).

Though it is home to concerning a quarter of the world's population, south Asia is the smallest of the four at regarding 5.1 million sq km (2 million sq miles).

Europe, by comparison, is 10.2 million sq km (3.9 million sq miles). What has the response to the change of maps been?

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

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

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

US representative Yaryna Ferencevych remarked before the vote that the resolution is "the reason this institution is losing its credibility".

"Instead of focusing on genuine problems. This body is debating map projects from the 16th century, " she remarked. What is Equal Earth?

Equal Earth was introduced in 2018 by three cartographers – Bojan Savric of the Environmental Systems Research Institute, Tom Patterson of the US National Park Service, and Bernhard Jenny of Monash University.

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

Notably, the UN resolution encourages governments and institutions worldwide to adopt the Equal Earth projection. Will the world map actually change?

Friday's resolution is not binding, but is intended to encourage changes to maps applied by default worldwide.

For context, the UN remarked in its report that it is not banning the Mercator projection or imposing a replacement, but is merely encouraging the apply of the Equal Earth projection.

In short, how big is Africa really? Why the UN voted to change the is the central thread here, and readers can expect follow-up reporting as the picture becomes clearer.