Despite US opposition, Africa wins UN backing to correct world map that shrinks its true size

The United Nations General Assembly has backed an Africa-led campaign to promote a new world map that more accurately reflects the relative size of countries and continents, marking a major diplomatic victory for efforts to challenge the way Africa has long been depicted.

• The UN General Assembly approved an Africa-led campaign to promote the Equal Earth map projection, accurately representing countries' sizes.
• The resolution, led by Togo and supported by the African Union, passed with 164 votes in favor and only the United States voting against.
• The Equal Earth projection addresses distortions from the traditional Mercator map, which makes regions like Africa appear much smaller than they are.
• Togo argues that inaccurate map depictions influence how Africa's importance is perceived globally, linking the issue to colonial-era legacies.

The resolution, led by Togo on behalf of African states and backed by the African Union, passed on Friday with 164 countries voting in favour, one against and six abstaining. The United States was the only country to vote against the proposal.

The initiative promotes the Equal Earth projection, an alternative to the centuries-old Mercator projection that preserves the relative area of land masses more accurately.

The Mercator projection, created in the 16th century, was designed primarily for navigation. While it accurately preserves directions, it dramatically enlarges areas closer to the North and South Poles.

That distortion has a striking effect on how Africa appears on conventional world maps.

Africa is roughly 14 times larger than Greenland, yet the two land masses can appear almost comparable in size on a Mercator map.

Why Africa wants the map changed

Togo has argued that the distortion goes beyond cartography, influencing how generations of students and the wider public perceive Africa's geographical importance.

“A fair world begins with a fair map,” Togo's Foreign Minister Robert Dussey told Reuters ahead of the vote, linking the campaign to wider African efforts to confront the legacy of colonial-era systems.

The resolution is not legally binding and does not prohibit the Mercator projection, particularly where it remains useful for maritime and aerial navigation. Instead, it encourages governments, schools, international organisations and technology companies to adopt more accurate area-based projections such as Equal Earth.

Togo plans to change its own school geography materials by the end of 2026 and use that move as an example for other countries. It also intends to engage African Union members, other supporters and technology companies involved in mapping and location-based services to encourage wider adoption.

The vote gives the #CorrectTheMap campaign a global platform, turning what might appear to be a technical debate about cartography into a broader African push for how the continent is represented in education, technology and global institutions.

For Africa, the significance is therefore less about eliminating an old map and more about changing the visual language through which the world has been taught to understand the continent.