The United Nations General Assembly has backed a resolution to formally phase out the traditional Mercator world map projection and replace it with an equal-area design that shows Africa in more accurate proportions.

The vote took place at UN headquarters in New York. The assembly adopted the measure with support from 164 countries. The United States was the only country to vote against it, according to the UN tally, while six countries abstained.

The resolution is non-binding, meaning it does not compel governments or organisations to use the new projection or to stop using the Mercator map. However, its adoption is expected to influence updates to classroom materials and wider use of mapping tools, given how widely Mercator is embedded in education, technology and government systems.

UN Resolution Retires The Mercator projection

The UN General Assembly formally retired the 16th-century Mercator projection in favour of an approach based on the 2018 Equal Earth design.

The Mercator layout was created in 1569 by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator, originally to help sailors navigate the seas. It remains widely used as a global standard.

But the projection stretches areas in higher latitudes and compresses regions near the equator, so Africa appears much smaller than it is in reality. The reporting cited an example in which Africa is shown as roughly the same size as Greenland, despite Africa being about 14 times larger than Denmark’s territory.

Togo Leads Campaign After African Union Endorsement

Togo sponsored the resolution, doing so on behalf of the African Union. The aim, Togo said, was to address what it described as longstanding harms from maps that misrepresent the size of regions.

Togo’s government said the resolution “recognises and affirms that disproportionate cartographic representations” linked to the Mercator projection have had lasting effects across education, culture and geopolitics, including by shrinking Africa’s perceived size in global understanding.

Robert Dussey, Togo’s foreign affairs minister, told the assembly before the vote that the change was driven by scientific evidence and reflected a need to accept “the reality” of Africa’s actual scale.

The campaign linked to the resolution was connected to a petition on Change.org for the #CorrectTheMap initiative, which has more than 11,000 signatures. The African Union endorsed the campaign in August 2025 and asked Togo to spearhead adoption at the UN.

Support, Criticism And Plans For Implementation

France’s foreign minister backed the resolution ahead of the vote, saying in remarks at the Sorbonne in Paris that France would move away from Mercator towards representations tailored to specific purposes, which he said better reflect actual surface areas and align with cartographers’ and scientists’ recommendations. France said it would use the Eckert IV projection, described as close to the Equal Earth approach.

Graphic courtesy of The Guardian

Debates about the Mercator map have continued for years among historians, geographers and campaign groups. Some have argued that the projection reflects Western stereotypes and have criticised it as contributing to what activists call “cartographic colonialism”. Others have linked the way the map visually frames regions to perceived effects on international power dynamics, including by making the northern hemisphere appear larger and equatorial areas smaller.

One prominent alternative discussed in the campaign is the Peters world map, created by German historian Arno Peters in 1973 using the Gall–Peters projection.

A senior associate at the London-based geopolitical risk advisory firm JS Held, JJ Enoch, said the Mercator projection visually diminished Africa’s true scale. He connected the push to a desire by African states for “greater influence” in global institutions and for more control over how the continent is represented.

Togo said it is planning an event in Lomé, the Togolese capital, in the first quarter of next year, with Unesco, the African Union and technology firms including Google Maps, to outline how the resolution will be put into practice.

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5 September 2026

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until we do it it wont get done.

The Mercator projection is deeply flawed and perpetuates white supremacy that has significantly contributed to the challenges faced by the African continent. Acknowledging this historical injustice is crucial, and it is time to take meaningful steps toward reparations.

3 hours ago, webfact said:

The United States was the only country to vote against it

I understand. Africa is now much bigger (too big) for Donnie's ego?

And, amusingly, it's not just that Africa gets quite a lot bigger. Usofa/Canada & above all Russia get a whole lot smaller.

Trump will be apoplectic. What fun.

4 hours ago, Yagoda said:

until we do it it wont get done.

Do you mean just like the metric system "didn't get done" by the rest of the world.

Why can't we just use photos from space and ask AI to adjust them?

25 minutes ago, wombat said:

Why can't we just use photos from space and ask AI to adjust them?

Cloud and atmospheric distortion.

If Africa is so big , why are they all coming to small europe ?

The Mercator map is ridiculous , so good news they will replace it.

39 minutes ago, FlorC said:

If Africa is so big , why are they all coming to small europe ?

The Mercator map is ridiculous , so good news they will replace it.

The Mercator projection was invented by a European to compensate for European men's small packages. 

The only accurate projection is a 3d globe, and even that is not 100% perfect.

Projections on to a flat surface are all misleading or inaccurate in some way. Which one to use for any given purpose depends on that purpose: a map intended for navigation requires very different properties from one intended for land use survey, for example.

This UN exercise is merely political tub-thumping, real people need not pay attention.

7 hours ago, webfact said:

The United Nations General Assembly has backed a resolution to formally phase out the traditional Mercator world map projection and replace it with an equal-area design that shows Africa in more accurate proportions.

Luckily for the Africans, countries on the map aren't sized proportionally to their inhabitants' average IQ.

Google maps still uses mercator.

A reasonable proposal. The discrepancies in size on the Mercator world map are misleading, and do not represent reality.

2 hours ago, FlorC said:

Google maps still uses mercator.

mate...it was only announced today, and it's not compulsory to change.
"The UN vote is non-binding but will see changes to the maps used by institutions around the world."

Personally, Africa hardly changes...but certainly north America, Greenland, Russia very very distorted....personally, they are all biased against Australia, make thew baseline the Tropic of Carpentaria...555
Check a 3D animated globe

https://www.echalk.co.uk/Science/physics/solarSystem/InteractiveEarth/interactiveEarth.html

Edited 22 hours ago22 hr by Aussie999

This doesn’t really change much, a geographic projection is just a shape.

13 hours ago, nick supreme said:

The Mercator projection is deeply flawed and perpetuates white supremacy that has significantly contributed to the challenges faced by the African continent. Acknowledging this historical injustice is crucial, and it is time to take meaningful steps toward reparations.

Utter absurdity.

For the true size of things ... ex: USA, TH, UK

https://thetruesize.com/#?borders=1~!MTU1NTI0ODE.MTA0NDQ2NA*MzYwMDAwMDA(MA

If go to link, just right click on the colored countries, to get rid of

9 hours ago, GreasyFingers said:

Do you mean just like the metric system "didn't get done" by the rest of the world.

lol. dont see the difference do you lol

17 minutes ago, Yagoda said:

lol. dont see the difference do you lol

I suggest that you take off your MAGA blinkers and look at the maps before posting such rubbish!

If you have looked at the maps and cannot see the differences, then I think it is probably time for you to visit "Specsavers"!!

Opticians | Glasses & Contact Lenses | Specsavers

13 minutes ago, scottiejohn said:

I suggest that you take off your MAGA blinkers and look at the maps before posting such rubbish!

If you have looked at the maps and cannot see the differences, then I think it is probably time for you to visit "Specsavers"!!

Opticians | Glasses & Contact Lenses | Specsavers

thanks lol. res ipsa loquitor

4 minutes ago, Yagoda said:

thanks lol. res ipsa loquitor

And the relevance of that pointles post is what?

Res ipsa loquitur (Latin: "the thing speaks for itself") is a doctrine in common law and Roman-Dutch law jurisdictions under which a court can infer negligence from the very nature of an accident or injury in the absence of direct evidence on how any defendant behaved in the context of tort litigation.

1 minute ago, scottiejohn said:

And the relevance of that pointles post is what?

Res ipsa loquitur (Latin: "the thing speaks for itself") is a doctrine in common law and Roman-Dutch law jurisdictions under which a court can infer negligence from the very nature of an accident or injury in the absence of direct evidence on how any defendant behaved in the context of tort litigation.

if you were smart enough you would have figured it out. its even in your response above. connect the dots.

4 hours ago, Aussie999 said:

mate...it was only announced today, and it's not compulsory to change.
"The UN vote is non-binding but will see changes to the maps used by institutions around the world."

I'm not your mate.

I wrote it because google earth is the real view.

Google maps not. Weird.

On 9/5/2026 at 8:14 AM, mfd101 said:

And, amusingly, it's not just that Africa gets quite a lot bigger. Usofa/Canada & above all Russia get a whole lot smaller.

Trump will be apoplectic. What fun.

Maybe he will look at new map and decide Canada and Greenland not enough real estate to bother with.....

Latin America & Oz both expand too.