MUMBAI: The world map may be getting a reality check. The United Nations General Assembly has backed a resolution promoting equal-area world maps as an alternative to the traditional Mercator projection, highlighting the need for geographical representations that more accurately reflect the relative size of countries and continents.
The resolution, A/80/L.104, was spearheaded by Togo on behalf of the African Union. It promotes the use of equal-area projections, including the Equal Earth projection developed in 2018.
The initiative seeks to address distortions associated with the Mercator projection, which has been widely used since Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator developed it in 1569. Designed primarily for maritime navigation, the projection preserves direction by stretching landmasses increasingly towards the poles.
That makes the map useful for navigation, but it also creates a striking visual mismatch in the apparent size of different regions.
Africa is one of the clearest examples. On a conventional Mercator map, Greenland can appear comparable in size to Africa, despite Africa being roughly 14 times larger. The projection also visually enlarges regions such as Europe, Russia and North America while reducing the apparent scale of Africa, South America and parts of Asia.
Africa covers about 30.3 million square kilometres, large enough to contain the continental United States, China, India, Japan, Mexico and much of Western Europe within its boundaries.
The Equal Earth projection takes a different approach. Developed specifically as an equal-area projection, it seeks to preserve the relative area of landmasses while maintaining a visually recognisable representation of the globe.
The resolution was adopted by the General Assembly with 164 countries voting in favour, one against and six abstaining. The United States was the sole country to oppose the resolution, arguing that the initiative amounted to an ideological agenda that distracted from more pressing challenges facing the UN.
France backed the initiative and has indicated that it will move away from Mercator maps in educational and public systems.
The resolution is not legally binding and does not prohibit the use of Mercator maps. The projection remains important for applications such as maritime navigation, where preserving direction is more important than accurately representing land area.
Instead, the initiative is aimed at changing how the world is represented in classrooms, publications and institutional communications. Togo and the African Union are expected to push adoption of equal-area maps across school curricula, newsrooms, publishers and textbook production during 2026 and 2027.
The campaign could also extend to digital mapping. Togo plans to engage with UNESCO, the African Union and major technology platforms to encourage the availability of equal-area map options for consumers.
The push does not mean the familiar Mercator map is disappearing overnight. Rather, it marks an effort to ensure that the map most commonly used to picture the world does not inadvertently make some parts of it look much bigger or smaller than they really are.
