It’s time to #CorrectTheMap

The United Nations General Assembly has taken a long-overdue step towards geographical honesty. On 4 September, 164 countries voted for a resolution calling for wider use of world maps that show continents and countries in their true relative sizes. Only the United States voted against it, while six countries abstained.

The resolution does not ban the existing Mercator projection or force every country to use one official map. It encourages governments, schools, international organisations, media outlets and technology companies to use equal-area maps, particularly the ‘Equal Earth’ projection, when comparing the size of different parts of the world.

This should not be controversial. A map used to teach world geography should represent the world as accurately as possible. Yet defenders of the existing map have treated even this simple principle as a political attack. Their reaction reveals how deeply people can become attached to a familiar distortion, especially when that distortion places their own countries at the visual centre of the world.

The Mercator projection was created by Gerardus Mercator in 1569 for maritime navigation. This Mercator map was important for navigation because it showed a ship’s constant compass direction as a straight line. Sailors could draw a straight line between two points, read the required bearing from their compass and follow that course across the sea.

In the UN-endorsed Equal Earth map, a constant compass direction may appear as a curved line, making it less convenient for traditional navigation. But a useful navigation chart is not necessarily a suitable map for classrooms, newsrooms or international organisations.

Mercator greatly enlarges places far from the Equator. As a result, Europe, North America, Greenland and Russia appear much larger than they really are in relation to Africa, South America and large parts of Asia. The farther a territory is from the Equator, the more its size is exaggerated. A technical feature intended to help 16th century sailors became, over time, the world’s dominant geographical image.

The most striking example is the comparison between Africa and Greenland. On a Mercator map, they can appear almost equal in size. In reality, Africa is about fourteen times larger than Greenland. Africa covers more than 30 million sq. km. It is large enough to contain the United States, China, India and much of Europe together. But on the map shown to generations of schoolchildren, it looks only moderately larger than Europe.

This is not a minor mistake in design. It is a false picture of the planet, repeated so often that most people no longer notice it. What is familiar begins to look natural, while an accurate map can appear strange simply because people have been trained to expect the wrong proportions.

Defenders of the status quo usually argue that all flat maps distort the globe. That is true, but it does not excuse the continued misuse of Mercator. All measuring tools have limitations, but we do not knowingly use a badly suited tool when a better one is available. A subway map distorts distance to make routes easier to follow. No serious planner would, therefore, use it to calculate the area of a city. In the same way, a navigation projection should not be used as the standard picture of world geography.

Equal Earth provides a clear alternative. Developed in 2018, it is an equal-area projection. It preserves the correct size relationships among continents and countries while keeping their shapes recognisable. As the Earth is curved, like a sphere, no flat map can show area, shape, distance and direction perfectly at the same time. But when the purpose is to show how large one region is compared with another, it tells the truth that Mercator hides.

The opposition to this correction cannot be separated from questions of history and power.

Maps are more than just drawings of coastlines and borders. They shape how people imagine the world. Large spaces attract attention and suggest importance. Smaller spaces appear weaker, more distant and less significant. When Europe and North America are enlarged while Africa and other equatorial regions are reduced, the map quietly coaxes a visual ranking of nations.

Mercator did not create his projection as a colonial conspiracy. But its later dominance suited a colonial world centred on European power. European empires controlled much of Africa, Asia and the Americas, and the most widely circulated map made imperial centres look larger and colonised regions smaller. The projection survived the formal end of colonial rule. The political map changed but the old visual prejudice remained on classroom walls.

The US objection in the UN General Assembly was especially revealing. Its representative dismissed the resolution as part of a radical ideological project and suggested that discussing a 16th-century map was beneath the UN. The response suggests that the debate strikes a nerve because it challenges a world view.

Of course, replacing a map will not end poverty, cancel debt or reform an unequal international system. It will not by itself overcome the political and economic problems facing African countries. But that is a false standard. No one argues that a fairer map can substitute for material justice. But the apparent size of a continent affects public perception — of its land, resources, population, environmental significance and strategic value.

The reform matters beyond Africa. Mercator also diminishes South America and misrepresents many countries in South and Southeast Asia, the Caribbean and Oceania. Equal-area maps offer a clearer understanding of land use, population density, ecosystems, food production and climate vulnerability.

The cost of the advocated switch to Equal Earth cannot be a serious excuse. We live in an age when satellites can observe remote landscapes in extraordinary detail and digital services can map almost every road, building and business. Technology companies can change a global display through a software update. Publishers regularly issue new editions of textbooks. Schools replace teaching material. It’s not quite tenable that we can map every street but cannot correct the world map.

The UN must now lead by example. Its agencies should use equal-area projections whenever relative size matters. Governments should revise school curriculums and official publications. Media organisations should review the maps used in news coverage. Technology companies should display a globe or an equal-area projection at the global level while keeping Mercator where navigation requires it. Teachers should also explain why projections differ, so students learn to question maps rather than accept them as an unassailable truth.

Ashok Swain is a professor of peace and conflict research at Uppsala University, Sweden. More by the author here