Dig into the inaccuracies of flat maps and how different map designs can shift our point of view.
visualcapitalist.com PublishedSeptember 14, 2026 4:50 pm By Niccolo Conte
“As Togo’s foreign minister Robert Dussey told the assembly, “A fair map does not change the geography of the world, it changes how we see it.”
Why the UN Wants a Different World Map
Key Takeaways
- On Sept. 4, 2026, the UN General Assembly adopted the “Correct the Map” resolution by a 164-1 vote, endorsing the Equal Earth projection.
- The non-binding resolution encourages governments, schools, media, international organizations, and technology platforms to use equal-area maps when comparing the sizes of continents.
- Unlike Mercator, Equal Earth preserves the true relative size of landmasses, dramatically changing how places such as Greenland, Canada, and Africa appear beside one another.
For more than four centuries, the Mercator projection has shaped one of the world’s most familiar views of the planet.
The icon map was designed to make navigation on the Earth’s oceans easier, but it came with a cost: the farther a place lies from the equator, the more dramatically its size is exaggerated.
