UN votes to adopt new world map reflecting Africa's true size

The United Nations General Assembly on Friday voted in favour of replacing the traditional world map with a version that more accurately reflects the size of Africa.

A resolution entitled "Correct the Map," introduced by Togo and backed by members of the African Union, was supported by 164 countries, with six abstentions. The United States was the only country to vote against it.

The vote is not binding, but is intended to encourage changes to maps used around the world.

The world's most commonly used map is based on the Mercator projection, developed by cartographer Gerardus Mercator in 1569 for navigation, according to Germany's Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy.

The projection distorts the relative size of countries, making areas appear larger the further they are from the equator.

On some maps, Greenland appears roughly as large as Africa, although the African continent is almost 14 times larger.

Togo hails historic moment

Togo's Foreign Minister Robert Dussey hailed the vote as a "historic moment" in a post on X.

"THE WORLD HAS CHOSEN TO CORRECT THE MAP," he wrote.

Dussey said the decision was about more than cartography, calling it a matter of "justice, dignity, equality and the way we represent our world."

"For too long, inherited cartographic representations have distorted our perception of the true size and place of Africa and other regions of the world. Correcting the map means correcting the way we see the world," he added.

The United States described the initiative as part of a radical ideological project.

The resolution does not ban the Mercator projection, but calls on governments, schools, international organizations and technology companies to use the "Equal Earth" projection and other equal-area maps when relative size is important.