The United Nations came within a single vote Friday of unanimously endorsing a new world map designed to show Africa at its actual scale, a change that makes the continent appear significantly larger than it does on many conventional maps.
The United States stood alone in opposing the U.N. General Assembly resolution adopting the Equal Earth map projection, which presents nations and continents according to their true relative sizes, according to the projection’s official website. In all, 165 member states supported the measure.
Six countries chose to abstain from the vote: Estonia, Georgia, Lithuania, Moldova, Serbia and Ukraine.
Yaryna Ferencevych, deputy U.S. representative to the U.N. Economic and Social Council, criticized the resolution, saying it had been framed as “an anodyne effort to update cartographic proportions” but amounted, in her assessment, to part of a “much larger and more radical ideological project.”
Yaryna Ferencevych, deputy U.S. representative to the United Nations Economic and Social Council, argues 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)
“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.
Her remarks referred to the Mercator projection, a map first developed in 1569 to support ocean navigation. Despite longstanding criticism over the way it distorts the size of landmasses, the Mercator map remains one of the most familiar world maps and continues to appear in many 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)
Togo Foreign Minister Robert Dussey, who introduced the resolution on behalf of the African Group, said 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)
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 News Outlet’s requests for comment.
