The United Nations has backed an African-led campaign calling for greater use of map projections that represent the relative size of continents more accurately, renewing debate over how Africa and other regions are portrayed on maps used in schools, media and technology.
The UN General Assembly adopted a resolution on September 4, led by Togo and supported by the African Union, encouraging governments, educational institutions, organisations and technology companies to consider map projections that provide a more accurate representation of the relative size of continents.
The resolution was adopted with 164 votes in favour, one against and six abstentions, with the United States casting the only opposing vote.
At the centre of the debate is the Mercator projection, a centuries-old map design that remains widely used in classrooms, media and digital mapping.
Why Does Africa Look Smaller on World Maps?
The Mercator projection was developed in the 16th century primarily to support navigation. One of its major advantages is its ability to preserve directions, making it useful for sailors plotting courses across the globe.
However, the projection significantly distorts the apparent size of landmasses as they move towards the poles.
This is why Greenland can appear comparable in size to Africa on a Mercator world map, despite the enormous difference between their actual land areas.
Africa is approximately 14 times larger than Greenland.
An alternative, the Equal Earth projection, was developed in 2018 to represent the relative areas of continents more accurately. However, preserving area comes with other compromises, including some distortion of shapes.
The debate highlights an important reality of cartography: because the Earth is spherical, no flat world map can perfectly preserve area, shape, distance and direction at the same time.
The UN Is Not Banning the Mercator Projection
Despite attention surrounding the resolution, it does not amount to a global ban on the Mercator projection.
It also does not require technology companies such as Google or Apple to immediately replace the maps used in their navigation systems.
The campaign led by Togo focuses on encouraging the use of projections that provide a more accurate representation of continental size, particularly in education and public communication.
Different map projections are designed for different purposes, meaning there is no single projection that is necessarily suitable for every application.
Will Google Maps Change?
The UN resolution does not mean that navigation applications will suddenly switch to Equal Earth or another equal-area projection.
Navigation systems have specific technical requirements. Maps used to find roads, calculate routes and provide turn-by-turn directions need to preserve certain characteristics that make navigation practical.
A map displayed in a classroom to demonstrate the relative size of continents serves a very different purpose from a digital map helping a driver navigate through Lagos.
As a result, the resolution is unlikely to lead to an immediate overhaul of everyday navigation technology.
What About Delivery and Logistics Apps?
The same distinction applies to delivery and logistics platforms.
Companies providing transportation and delivery services rely on GPS data, road networks, traffic information, addresses and routing systems. Changing the projection used to display a world map would not automatically address the practical challenges facing these services.
In Nigeria, issues such as incomplete addresses, difficult-to-locate buildings, informal roads, traffic congestion and last-mile access can have a much greater effect on deliveries than the projection used to display a world map.
The underlying technology powering these services can therefore continue operating even if organisations adopt different projections for educational or visual presentations.
Education Could See the Biggest Impact
One of the areas most likely to benefit from the campaign is education.
Schools, examination bodies, government institutions, news organisations and international agencies could use equal-area projections when teaching geography or illustrating the actual size of different continents.
The change could also influence data visualisation.
Government dashboards, climate reports, investment presentations and development programmes frequently use world maps to communicate information. Using a projection that more accurately represents land area could help audiences develop a better understanding of the scale and geographical distribution of global issues.
Why Africa Is Driving the Campaign
For supporters of the initiative, the debate is about more than cartography.
Maps influence how people visualise and understand the world. Because the Mercator projection enlarges landmasses closer to the poles, regions around the equator can appear significantly smaller than they actually are.
Africa, which covers roughly 30 million square kilometres, can therefore appear visually diminished when compared with regions whose apparent size is exaggerated by the projection.
The African-led campaign argues that using more accurate representations of continental size could contribute to better geographical literacy and a more realistic understanding of the continent.
The initiative also places the issue within a wider educational and cultural context, arguing that how the world is represented can influence how people perceive different regions.
What Does the Resolution Mean for Nigeria?
For Nigeria, the immediate impact is unlikely to appear on smartphone navigation screens.
Instead, the bigger opportunity could come through education, government communication, journalism and data presentation.
Nigerian schools and public institutions could adopt equal-area maps when teaching geography or presenting information about Africa and other parts of the world.
News organisations could also reconsider the projections used in maps appearing in television graphics, online stories and data explainers.
For technology companies, the resolution represents more of an international policy conversation than an immediate technical requirement.
For example, a mapping company could use an equal-area projection for a dashboard showing global land area, population or market distribution while continuing to use a different projection for navigation.
The Bigger Technology Question
The UN resolution may not change how technology moves people, packages or vehicles, but it could influence how technology represents the world.
That distinction is important.
The resolution is essentially a political, educational and cultural push for more accurate representation of geographical size. It is not an instruction for every navigation, mapping or logistics company to rebuild its technology overnight.
For now, the most visible changes are likely to emerge in classrooms, government reports, news graphics, research publications and data visualisations.
Navigation systems, delivery platforms and other location-based services can continue using projections suited to their specific technical requirements.
The world itself has not changed.
What may change is the picture we use to understand it.
