Overview
- The UN General Assembly approved the Togo-led “Correct the map” resolution with 164 votes in favor, one against and six abstentions, a result reported across multiple outlets following Friday’s vote.
- The resolution does not ban the Mercator projection but calls on governments, schools, international organisations and technology companies to use Equal Earth and other equal-area maps when relative land size matters.
- The United States was the sole country to vote against the measure, characterising the initiative as part of a radical ideological project, while Togo’s foreign minister hailed the outcome as a correction of misleading cartography.
- Cartographers and campaigners argue the change addresses a concrete technical flaw—Mercator enlarges high-latitude areas and shrinks equatorial regions so Africa appears far smaller than it really is, for example making Greenland look comparable to a continent that is about 14 times larger.
- Because UN General Assembly resolutions are non-binding, the next effects will depend on voluntary actions by education systems, media, mapmakers and tech platforms, which could reshape public perception, curricula and institutional maps if they adopt equal-area projections.