How big is Africa really? Why the UN voted to change the world map

The UN has urged countries to adopt a map that makes Africa, Latin America, South Asia and Oceania larger than the traditional Mercator projection.

UN approves new map showing Africa’s true size

The United Nations General Assembly has voted to back a resolution spearheaded by several African countries to adopt a map that shows the continent as much bigger than it is on conventional world maps.

On Friday, the resolution aimed at “a more accurate representation” of continental landmasses on the globe was supported by 164 countries, while the United States voted against it and six other states abstained.

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The new map – known as the Equal Earth cartographic projection – “is a relevant option for improving the accuracy of the cartographic representation of the world”, the resolution stated.

Foreign Minister Robert Dussey of Togo, which drove the resolution, said maps “guide education, nourish the imagination, and influence collective perceptions”.

“The resolution adopted today reaffirms African reality,” he added.

But how does the new map differ from the traditional version, and why did the US object?

What has the UN decided?

The UN has urged member states to adopt a new map in place of the centuries-old, traditional Mercator projection, which was designed for maritime navigation by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator in 1569.

That projection focused on accurate depictions of the shapes and angles of land masses, but their relative sizes were often inaccurate – in part because of the challenge of rendering a three-dimensional globe onto a two-dimensional surface.

It inflated northern regions and compressed equatorial ones, making Europe and North America appear much larger, while shrinking Africa and South America.

How big are Africa, Latin America, South Asia and Oceania?

It does not look like it on the conventional Mercator map, but Africa is a giant among the world’s continents at about 30.3 million square kilometres (11.7 million square miles).

It is large enough to contain the US, China, India and most of Europe, yet on a Mercator map it looks roughly the same size as Greenland, which is actually about 14 times smaller than the continent.

Latin America covers roughly 20 million sq km (7.7 million sq miles), of which South America accounts for 17.8 million sq km (6.9 million sq miles).

Oceania spans about 8.5 million sq km (3.3 million sq miles), almost all of it Australia.

South Asia is the smallest of the four at about 5.1 million sq km (2 million sq miles), though it is home to about a quarter of the world’s population.

Combined, the four cover about 64 million sq km (24.7 million sq miles), more than 40 percent of the world’s land surface.

Europe, by comparison, is 10.2 million sq km (3.9 million sq miles).

What has the response to the change of maps been?

France, which co-sponsored the resolution in support of the new map, announced on Friday that it would abandon the Mercator projection.

In that map, “the United States, Russia and China take on a disproportionate visual prominence compared to Africa, Latin America or Southeast Asia”, while “Greenland appears almost as big as Africa,” Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said.

“Changing maps obviously doesn’t change the world,” he added. “But correcting a distorted representation is already an act of truth.”

Only the US voted against it, while six other countries – Serbia, Estonia, Georgia, Lithuania, Moldova and Ukraine – abstained.

US representative Yaryna Ferencevych said before the vote that the resolution is “the reason this institution is losing its credibility”.

“Instead of focusing on genuine problems … this body is debating map projects from the 16th century,” she said.

What is Equal Earth?

Equal Earth was launched in 2018 by three cartographers – Bojan Savric of the Environmental Systems Research Institute, Tom Patterson of the US National Park Service, and Bernhard Jenny of Monash University.

“Equal Earth preserves the relative surface areas of continents and, as much as possible, shows their shapes as they appear on a globe,” Savric told the AFP news agency in 2025.

The UN resolution encourages governments and institutions worldwide to adopt the Equal Earth projection.

Will the world map actually change?

Friday’s resolution is not binding, but is intended to encourage changes to maps used by default around the world.

The UN said in its report that it is not banning the Mercator projection or imposing a replacement, but is merely encouraging the use of the Equal Earth projection.

联合国敦促各国采用一种地图，使非洲、拉丁美洲、南亚和大洋洲的面积大于传统的墨卡托投影地图。

联合国批准新地图，显示非洲的真实面积

联合国大会投票支持由几个非洲国家牵头提出的决议，该决议旨在通过一张地图，该地图将非洲大陆显示得比传统世界地图上显示的要大得多。

周五，旨在“更准确地表示”全球大陆陆地面积的决议获得了 164 个国家的支持，而美国投了反对票，另有 6 个国家弃权。

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联合国就通过反映非洲真实面积的新世界地图进行了3次投票，这是其中的3次。

该决议指出，这张名为“平等地球”的新地图“是提高世界地图表示精度的一个相关选择”。

推动该决议的多哥外交部长罗伯特·杜西表示，地图“指导教育，滋养想象力，并影响集体认知”。

他补充说：“今天通过的决议重申了非洲的现实。”

但新地图与传统版本有何不同？美国为何反对？

联合国做出了什么决定？

联合国敦促各成员国采用新地图，以取代沿用数百年的传统墨卡托投影。墨卡托投影由佛兰德制图师杰拉杜斯·墨卡托于 1569 年设计，用于海上导航。

该投影侧重于准确描绘陆地的形状和角度，但它们的相对大小往往不准确——部分原因是将三维地球渲染到二维表面上的挑战。

它使北方地区膨胀，赤道地区收缩，使欧洲和北美洲看起来大得多，而使非洲和南美洲缩小。

非洲、拉丁美洲、南亚和大洋洲的面积分别有多大？

从传统的墨卡托投影地图上看不出来，但非洲是世界各大洲中的巨人，面积约为 3030 万平方公里（1170 万平方英里）。

它面积足够大，可以容纳美国、中国、印度和欧洲的大部分地区，但在墨卡托投影地图上，它看起来与格陵兰岛的大小大致相同，而格陵兰岛实际上比这片大陆小约 14 倍。

拉丁美洲面积约 2000 万平方公里（770 万平方英里），其中南美洲面积为 1780 万平方公里（690 万平方英里）。

大洋洲面积约 850 万平方公里（330 万平方英里），几乎全部是澳大利亚。

南亚是四大洲中面积最小的，约 510 万平方公里（200 万平方英里），但却居住着世界约四分之一的人口。

这四个国家加起来面积约 6400 万平方公里（2470 万平方英里），占世界陆地面积的 40% 以上。

相比之下，欧洲的面积为 1020 万平方公里（390 万平方英里）。

地图变更后，各方反响如何？

法国是支持新地图决议的共同发起国，该国于周五宣布将放弃墨卡托投影。

外交部长让-诺埃尔·巴罗表示，在那张地图上，“美国、俄罗斯和中国与非洲、拉丁美洲或东南亚相比，在视觉上显得过于突出”，而“格陵兰岛看起来几乎和非洲一样大”。

“更换地图显然不会改变世界，”他补充道，“但纠正扭曲的描述本身就是一种追求真理的行为。”

只有美国投了反对票，而塞尔维亚、爱沙尼亚、格鲁吉亚、立陶宛、摩尔多瓦和乌克兰这六个国家投了弃权票。

美国代表亚琳娜·费伦采维奇在投票前表示，该决议是“该机构失去信誉的原因”。

“与其关注真正的问题……这个机构却在讨论16世纪的地图项目，”她说。

什么是平等地球？

Equal Earth 由三位制图师于 2018 年发起——分别是环境系统研究所的 Bojan Savric、美国国家公园管理局的 Tom Patterson 和莫纳什大学的 Bernhard Jenny。

“Equal Earth 保留了各大洲的相对表面积，并尽可能地展现它们在地球仪上的形状，”萨夫里克在 2025 年告诉法新社。

联合国决议鼓励世界各国政府和机构采纳“平等地球”计划。

世界地图真的会改变吗？

周五的决议不具约束力，但旨在鼓励对世界各地默认使用的地图进行更改。

联合国在其报告中表示，它并没有禁止墨卡托投影或强制使用其他投影方式，而只是鼓励使用地球投影。