Cartographers explain how the Equal Earth projection shows Africa’s true relative size and why the world map we use matters.

On September 4, 2026, the United Nations adopted a resolution to promote a new map of the world. The resolution encourages ...

The U.N. voted to promote map projections that more accurately represent the world, drawing official opposition from the U.S.

I previously examined the representation of deviation score ranking tables for middle school entrance exams. My conclusion ...

The new map is intended to reduce geographic distortions in educational materials, public communications and data visualizations. The U.N. resolution recommends rather than requires use of the new map ...

The United Nations adopted the Equal Earth map showing Africa's true size, but the United States was the sole nation to vote against the resolution.

The UN has passed a non-binding resolution to endorse the Equal Earth Projection, a map which more fairly represents the true size of the Earth’s landmasses. The current commonly used projection, ...

The African Union has endorsed the #CorrectTheMap Campaign, a call for the United Nations and the wider global community to use a different kind of world map. The campaign currently has over 4,500 ...

Compare Greenland and South America on a world map.On a Mercator projection map, the large northern island appears wider than ...

The Mercator projection, left, distorts the relative size of landmasses, particularly towards the poles. The Equal Earth ...

France is redrawing its world map: deeming the Mercator projection misleading, the foreign ministry will drop it in favour of a map that better reflects actual continental sizes, especially Africa. A ...

Cartographers rely on the authority of maps to communicate locations, guide navigation at sea, and shape people’s perceptions of Earth. However, because all flat maps have compromises built into them, ...