How big is Africa really? Why the UN voted to change the world map

Key Points:

• The United Nations General Assembly voted in favor of a resolution promoting the adoption of the Equal Earth map projection, which more accurately represents the true size of continents, particularly Africa, with 164 countries supporting it, while the US opposed and six countries abstained.
• The resolution seeks to replace the traditional Mercator projection, which distorts landmass sizes by inflating northern regions like Europe and North America and minimizing equatorial areas such as Africa and South America.
• Africa, often underestimated on conventional maps, is actually about 30.3 million square kilometers—large enough to contain the US, China, India, and most of Europe combined—while Greenland appears disproportionately large on Mercator maps despite being 14 times smaller.
• The new Equal Earth projection, developed in 2018 by three cartographers, preserves relative surface areas and better reflects the continents' shapes, with France announcing it will adopt the new map and the UN encouraging global adoption, though the resolution is non-binding.
• The US criticized the resolution as a distraction from pressing issues, but supporters argue that correcting map distortions is an important step toward truthful representation and reshaping collective perceptions influenced by traditional maps.