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The United Nations on Friday was one vote shy of unanimously adopting a new map of the world that shows Africa’s true size, making the continent appear far larger than it does on traditional maps.
The United States was the only one of the 165 member nations to vote against the UN General Assembly resolution to accept the Equal Earth map projection, which depicts countries and continents in their true relative sizes, according to the map creator’s website.
Six nations abstained, including Estonia, Georgia, Lithuania, Moldova, Serbia and Ukraine.
Yaryna Ferencevych, the deputy U.S. representative to the U.N. Economic and Social Council, said the resolution was presented as “an anodyne effort to update cartographic proportions” but was, in her view, part of a “much larger and more radical ideological project.”
Yaryna Ferencevych, the deputy U.S. representative to the United Nations Economic and Social Council, speaks against adopting the Equal Earth world map during the 114th plenary meeting of the 80th session of the U.N. General Assembly on Sept. 4, 2026. (United Nations)
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“Instead of focusing on genuine problems of international peace, prosperity, or good relations, this body is debating map projects from the 16th century and their role in promoting reparations and cognitive justice,” Ferencevych said Friday during the 114th Plenary meeting.
“Resolutions like this one and the ideological agenda they promote are barnacles on our work here and the reason this institution is losing its credibility,” she added.
Ferencevych was referring to the Mercator projection, created in 1569 to aid maritime navigation. To this day, it is seen as the traditional world map and is used in many school textbooks and atlases.
It enlarges land masses near the poles and reduces the apparent size of those near the equator, making Africa appear far smaller relative to Greenland and Europe than it is in reality.
The Equal Earth map that the United Nations favors. It depicts all continents at their true sizes relative to one another. (Courtesy: Tom Patterson)
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Togo Foreign Minister Robert Dussey, who introduced the resolution on behalf of the African Group, said that adopting the new map would “promote projections that better preserve the true proportions of continents.”
“A fair map does not change the geography of the world; it changes how we see the world,” he said. “And when our perspective becomes more just, it paves the way for greater understanding, respect and peace among nations.”
The measure does not require countries or companies to abandon the Mercator projection, but it establishes the U.N.’s official backing for equal-area maps as the preferred way to depict the world.
The world on Mercator projection between 85°3’4″S and 85°3’4″N. (Strebe)
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The Mercator projection largely fell out of favor among cartographers in the 20th century because of its distortions. However, it saw a resurgence after Google Maps adopted the Web Mercator projection in 2005, with virtually every major online mapping service following suit.
Web Mercator became the standard for online maps because it allowed for smooth panning and zooming across the globe, making it well suited for interactive digital maps, according to a 2014 Cartographica study.
The United States Mission to the United Nations and the ECOSOC did not immediately respond to Digital’s requests for comment.
