Africa-led campaign asks governments, schools and tech firms to move away from the Mercator projection map

In use for centuries, the Mercator Projection was designed to aid navigation of the globe, but increases size distortion depending on relative location

Africa, along with Latin America, India, Australia and other equatorial regions, appear much smaller relative to northern countries than their true area

Africa-led campaign, #CorrectTheMap, had the UN general assembly voting to replace the traditional world map with alternative reflecting the size of all nations more accurately

Developed in 2018, the Equal Earth map offers a more accurate representation of the size of every continent

The African Union endorsed the campaign in August 2025 and tasked Togo with leading the push for its adoption at the UN

Denouncing “cartographic colonialism”, Africa-led campaign asks governments, schools and tech firms to move away from the centuries-old Mercator projection, as UN votes to adopt new world map that shows the true size of all countries

The United Nations general assembly by a majority of 164 to one, has voted to replace the traditional world map with one that more accurately reflects the size of all nations.
The “Correct the Map” resolution, sponsored by Togo, passed with the a majority of 164 to one. The single non-consenting vote was cast by the United States. Six other member nations chose to abstain.
The approved resolution calls for the world to move away from the traditional Mercator map, which shrinks the size of Africa and other landmasses closer to the equator, simultaneously exaggerating northern landmasses.
The resolution while non-binding, asks governments, schools, international organizations, and technology companies to adopt the Equal Earth projection and other equal-area maps wherever the true scale of continents matters, with the aim of establishing more proportionally accurate maps as a new global norm. It does not seek to ban the Mercator projection outright.
The Mercator projection, which is currently used worldwide, increases distortion the further a region sits from the equator. Since Africa straddles the equator, it seems comparatively smaller than its actual size, while Europe, North America, Greenland, and Russia all appear substantially larger than they are.
As a result, Africa, along with Latin America, India, Australia and other equatorial regions, appear much smaller relative to northern countries than their true area.
A poignant illustration of the size distortion is that the Mercator map depicts Africa as similar in size to the Danish territory Greenland. The African continent in reality is 14 times larger Greenland.
In a briefing to the African Group at the UN this week, Togo’s foreign minister, Robert Dussey, emphasized that the importance of the issue goes beyond geography: “A map is never neutral,” Dussey reasoned.
“It shapes perceptions, influences how the place of peoples and continents in the world is understood, and may, sometimes from the earliest years of schooling, perpetuate representations that do not correspond to geographic reality.”
“Africa is not asking for preferential treatment,” he said.
“Africa is asking that its reality, aspirations and contribution to the international system be duly taken into account.”

Africa like other land masses closer to the equator appear too small on most modern maps. The Correct the Map campaign wants the Equal Earth projection adopted in place of Mercator. Developed in 2018, the Equal Earth map offers a more accurate representation of the size of every continent

“I’m an academic before a politician,” Mr Dussey said.
“As an academic, I say we have to have as large a consensus as possible, because we are here at the UN, we never know.”
A petition on the fundraising platform Change for the campaign, called #CorrectTheMap, had gathered around 11,000 signatures ahead of the vote.
The African Union, [AU], endorsed the campaign in August 2025 and tasked Togo with leading the push for adoption at the UN.
“As Africa becomes increasingly central to solving global challenges,” the petition says, “it is critical to represent its true scale.”
Historians and geographers have long argued that the Mercator map reflects Western assumptions about the world, and some campaigners have used the term “cartographic colonialism” to denounce what they have described as its negative effects.
German historian Arno Peters, a prominent critic of the Mercator projection, in 1973 launched an alternative map based on the Gall-Peters projection.
By contrast, the Togo led campaign promotes instead, the 2018 Equal Earth map, developed by an international team of cartographers, which according to it’s supporters offers a more accurate representation of size for every continent.
Minister Dussey correlated the map correction campaign to another African Union-backed resolution passed at the UN in March. That campaign which described the transatlantic slave trade as the “gravest crime against humanity”, was approved by 123 states, with three against and 52 members abstaining.
In April 2025, two African advocacy groups, Africa No Filter and Speak Up Africa, had launched a campaign to push schools, followed by international organizations and media outlets, to use the Equal Earth projection, which ‘more accurately reflects the true size of Africa.’
While the Mercator projection is still common in classrooms and tech platforms. Google Maps dropped the projection for a 3D globe on desktop in 2018, but users can switch back to the old map. However, the mobile app still defaults to the Mercator projection.
Togo’s government is now set to hold an event in the capital, Lomé, with UNESCO, AU and technology companies including Google Maps in the first quarter of next year to work out how the change may be implemented.