UN General Assembly Votes to Replace Mercator Map to Reflect Africa’s True Size
POLICY WIRE — New York, USA — The United Nations General Assembly has officially voted to move away from the traditional Mercator world map in favor of a projection that more accurately depicts the...
POLICY WIRE — New York, USA — The United Nations General Assembly has officially voted to move away from the traditional Mercator world map in favor of a projection that more accurately depicts the actual size of countries.
The resolution, titled Correct the Map, was championed by Togo and received broad support from members of the African Union.
A total of 164 nations, including the United Kingdom and France, voted in favor of the measure on Friday.
The initiative seeks to replace the 16th-century map created by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator, which critics argue diminishes the perceived scale of Africa.
By adopting the Equal Earth projection, the UN aims to provide a visual representation where countries are shown in their true relative sizes to one another.
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African states sponsored the shift to combat long-standing perceptions that the continent is peripheral to the rest of the world.
Reporting by Policy-Wire (PW)
