The United Nations has backed a new world map designed to give Africa and other continents a more accurate representation of their actual size.
The UN General Assembly approved the resolution on Friday after 164 countries voted in favour. Six countries abstained, while the United States was the only country to vote against it.
The initiative was led by Togo and supported by the African Union as part of a campaign to move away from the centuries-old Mercator projection.
The resolution promotes the Equal Earth projection, which represents the relative areas of continents more accurately.
Why Africa looks smaller on familiar maps
The Mercator projection was created by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator in 1569.
It was designed primarily for navigation. It remains useful for maritime purposes because it preserves certain angles and directions.
Its major weakness is size.
The projection makes territories farther from the Equator appear much larger than they actually are. As a result, Greenland can appear comparable in size to Africa on a conventional world map.
In reality, Africa is about 14 times larger than Greenland.
Africa covers roughly 30.3 million square kilometres. That makes it large enough to contain the United States, China, India and much of Europe.
The Equal Earth projection addresses much of this distortion by preserving the relative area of land masses more accurately.
A map is more than geography
For African governments and campaigners, the issue goes beyond cartography.
The way countries and continents appear on maps can influence how people understand their importance and scale.
Togo, which spearheaded the UN initiative, has argued that maps influence education and collective perceptions.
The African Union endorsed the broader Correct the Map campaign before the UN vote.
Supporters say changing the map can help challenge long-standing perceptions that visually minimise Africa while enlarging parts of Europe, North America and other northern regions.
The debate has therefore become part of a wider African push to address the legacy of colonial-era representations.
What the UN decision actually changes
The resolution does not ban the Mercator projection.
It is also not legally binding.
Instead, it encourages governments, educational institutions, international organisations and technology companies to consider more accurate projections such as Equal Earth.
Togo has said it intends to update its own school geography materials and encourage other countries to follow.
The resolution also recognises that the Mercator projection remains appropriate for certain navigation purposes.
That means the immediate impact is likely to be greatest in education, publishing, media and digital mapping rather than maritime navigation.
Why this matters to Africa
Africa has long faced a gap between its physical scale and how it is represented in global narratives.
The continent is the world’s second-largest continent by land area and has 54 internationally recognised countries.
Yet conventional maps can make Africa look considerably smaller than it is.
The new UN-backed approach does not change Africa’s geography.
It changes the way people see it.
That distinction is important.
A more accurate map will not solve Africa’s economic, political or security challenges. It will not change the continent’s position in global trade or international institutions.
But supporters believe accurate representation matters because perception can shape education, public understanding and the way societies think about global power.
The bigger picture
The UN vote gives African countries a rare opportunity to influence a global standard that has remained largely unchanged for centuries.
It also shows how a seemingly technical issue can become part of a much larger debate about representation and power.
The next test will be implementation.
If governments, schools, media organisations and technology companies adopt Equal Earth or other equal-area projections, the change could gradually become visible in classrooms and on screens around the world.
For Africa, the significance may therefore be less about getting a bigger-looking continent on a map and more about ensuring that the map reflects reality.
