The UN has backed a world map that shows Africa at its true size

What the UN decided

On Friday, September 4, 2026, the United Nations (UN) General Assembly voted for a resolution called “Correct the map.” Its full title is “Correct the map: rebalancing global cartographic representation and promoting equitable representation of the world’s regions, particularly Africa.” Togo introduced it, as draft resolution A/80/L.104, on behalf of the Group of African States.

The vote was 164 in favor and 1 against. The United States voted against, calling the text part of a “radical ideological project.” Six countries abstained, voting neither for nor against: Estonia, Georgia, Lithuania, the Republic of Moldova, Serbia and Ukraine.

The resolution does not require anyone to change their maps. It encourages countries, international organizations and others to use the Equal Earth map and other equal-area maps, which show every place at its true size compared with the others, where the sizes of continents matter. It urges technology companies to work with governments toward more accurate maps, and it encourages countries to teach in schools how maps can distort the sizes of continents.

The text also says it is “without prejudice to the established practice with regard to the use of cartographic material for navigational purposes.” Togo’s government put it more plainly in a statement: the resolution “in no way challenges the use of the Mercator projection for maritime and aerial navigation, for which it remains fully suited.”

“A fair map does not change the geography of the world; it changes how we see the world.”

Why Africa looks small on many maps

A map projection is a way of drawing the round Earth on a flat surface. Every projection distorts something. The most widely used world map is the Mercator projection, which the Flemish mapmaker Gerardus Mercator drew in 1569 to help sailors. It keeps compass directions true, but it stretches places more and more the farther they are from the equator.

Africa sits across the equator, so Mercator draws it close to its real size. Greenland, Europe, Russia and Canada lie far to the north, so Mercator draws them much too big. Next to them, Africa looks small. The resolution calls this a “proportional shrinkage of Africa.”

Africa covers about 30.3 million square kilometers (km²), or 11.7 million square miles. Greenland covers about 2.17 million km², or 836,000 square miles. Africa is about 14 times bigger. It is larger than the United States, China and India put together, and each of Africa’s two largest countries, Algeria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is bigger than Greenland.

What the Equal Earth map is

Equal Earth is a world map projection published in 2018 by the cartographers Bojan Šavrič, Tom Patterson and Bernhard Jenny. It is an equal-area projection: every country is drawn at its true size compared with every other country.

Older equal-area maps, such as the Gall–⁠Peters map, stretch the continents near the equator so they look tall and thin. Equal Earth was designed to look familiar instead. Its sides are rounded, lines of latitude stay straight, and shapes stay close to what people expect. No flat map is perfect, and Equal Earth still bends shapes near its edges. What it does not do is shrink or inflate any country.

What changes, and what doesn’t

The street map on your phone is unlikely to change. Street maps such as Google Maps use a version of Mercator on purpose: when you zoom in to a city, it keeps streets meeting at the right angles and shapes looking right. That is what Mercator is good at.

The resolution is aimed at world maps, the ones where people compare the sizes of places: in classrooms and textbooks, in atlases, on the news and on walls. It is voluntary, so its effect depends on who chooses to use it.

The Correct the Map campaign was started by two organizations, Africa No Filter and Speak Up Africa, and backed by the African Union in August 2025. It asks organizations to sign a charter and commit to using Equal Earth. The resolution notes that the African Union has adopted the Equal Earth map itself. Anyone can download the Equal Earth map for free from equal-earth.com.

To learn why Mercator distorts size, read how the Mercator projection works. For more comparisons like Greenland and Africa, see the true size of countries.

See it for yourself

Reading that Africa is 14 times the size of Greenland is one thing. Watching Greenland shrink as you drag it toward the equator is another. TrueWorld Maps lets you pick up any country, move it anywhere on a world map and compare it with another.

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Sources

1. Correct the map: rebalancing global cartographic representation and promoting equitable representation of the world’s regions, particularly Africa, draft resolution A/80/L.104, United Nations General Assembly, August 4, 2026.
2. General Assembly adopts text to “Correct the Map,” among others…, UN Meetings Coverage and Press Releases, September 4, 2026.
3. UN tells the world: Stop making Africa look small, UN News, September 4, 2026.
4. UN votes to adopt new world map that reflects Africa’s true size, Al Jazeera, September 4, 2026.
5. The U.N. backs a new world map showing Africa in its true relative size, NPR, September 4, 2026.
6. African Union backs campaign to replace Mercator map that distorts Africa’s size, NPR, August 21, 2025.
7. Correct the Map campaign website, by Africa No Filter and Speak Up Africa.
8. The Equal Earth map projection, B. Šavrič, T. Patterson and B. Jenny, International Journal of Geographical Information Science, 2019.
9. Country areas: The World Factbook, Central Intelligence Agency, final edition (discontinued in February 2026). Data from the factbook.json archive of The World Factbook.
10. Map outlines: Natural Earth countries at 1:50 million scale, public domain.