The UN General Assembly has adopted a nonbinding resolution promoting world maps that show Africa at its true relative size, following longstanding objections that the 16th-century Mercator projection makes the continent appear disproportionately small.
The “Correct the Map” resolution, sponsored by Togo on behalf of the African Group, passed on Friday by 164 votes. The US voted against it, while Estonia, Georgia, Lithuania, Moldova, Serbia, and Ukraine abstained.
The measure encourages governments, schools, publishers, international institutions, and digital platforms to use Equal Earth or other equal-area projections when comparing the size of countries and continents. It neither bans Mercator nor establishes a single official UN map. The resolution also states that it does not affect international borders or territorial claims.
Togolese Foreign Minister Robert Dussey said correcting the map would restore an accurate understanding of the continent’s true dimensions. “A more faithful representation can help better cover Africa’s real wealth and potential, particularly in global economy and commercial dynamics,” Dussey told reporters.
Created by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator in 1569, the old projection preserves angles and was designed for maritime navigation. However, it increasingly enlarges landmasses closer to the poles. Greenland consequently appears comparable in size to Africa, although the continent is about 14 times larger.
Equal Earth, introduced in 2018, preserves relative land area but, like every flat representation of a spherical planet, still distorts some shapes, distances, or directions. France backed the resolution but said it would use another equal-area projection, Eckert IV.
The vote followed the launch of the Correct the Map campaign by Africa No Filter and Speak Up Africa in April 2025. The initiative described Mercator’s continued dominance as “cartographic colonialism,” arguing that making Africa appear smaller influences education, identity, and perceptions of the continent’s global importance. Those wider social effects remain an argument advanced by campaigners rather than a feature of the projection itself.
Washington said the resolution “mocks the work and purpose” of the UN and promotes an “ideological agenda.” Ukraine objected to maps on the Equal Earth website depicting Crimea as politically separate from the rest of the country.
African Union Commission Chairperson Mahmoud Ali Youssouf welcomed the resolution and urged international institutions, schools, publishers and digital platforms to progressively adopt maps that accurately reflect land areas. “Africa must be represented as it truly is: in its true dimensions and in its rightful place in the world,” he said.
Russia also backed the measure, saying the widespread use of Mercator maps had entrenched a misleading perception of Africa’s size. Deputy Permanent Representative Maria Zabolotskaya said the resolution sought to “correct a long-entrenched disproportion” associated with the “heavy historical legacy of colonialism,” under which Africa’s “place and significance were diminished.”