Think you know the map of the world? Test your geography skills.
The UN General Assembly has adopted the Equal Earth projection to replace the 400-year-old Mercator map, pushing to correct a centuries-old cartographic distortion that severely shrinks the African continent.
The map of Africa is much larger than most people think – a geographic reality largely understated by the Mercator projection that has dominated world maps for more than four centuries.
On a standard Mercator map, originally designed for 16th-century European colonial exploration and maritime trade, Greenland appears roughly the same size as Africa. In reality, the African continent is about 14 times larger.
To rectify this, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) last Friday (4 September) voted 164 to one to adopt a resolution promoting the Equal Earth projection. This modern alternative shows the continents in their true, accurate proportions.
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Test your geography skills with this map distortion quiz! Identify mystery countries by shape alone before the map morphs from Mercator to Equal Earth to reveal their true sizes and names.
Led by Togo (Togolese Republic) on behalf of the African Group – a bloc of 54 African Union member states – the resolution actively encourages schools, institutions, and tech companies to make the switch.
Fixing a 400-year-old distortion
Every flat map distorts either shape, area, distance, or direction simply because the Earth is a sphere.
Gerardus Mercator's 1569 map chose to preserve straight bearings for maritime navigation at the expense of true land size.
The Equal Earth projection, however, makes the opposite trade-off: it preserves true area so continents can be compared honestly, slightly bending their outlines in the process.
Togo's Foreign Minister Robert Dussey told the UNGA that maps fundamentally shape education, imagination, and collective perception, adding that the resolution finally affirms African reality on the world stage.
Following the African Union's own adoption of the map in March, Togo plans to host a meeting in Lomé early next year with the African Union, Unesco, and tech companies including Google to map out practical implementation.
