The map the world voted for.
On 4 September 2026 the UN General Assembly adopted “Correct the Map” by 164 votes to 1. It asks schools, media and digital platforms to use the Equal Earth projection — or another equal-area map — wherever the relative size of countries and continents matters. Kartavera has drawn the world in Equal Earth since its first day. This is that map, open to everyone, free.
What fits inside Africa
Africa covers 30,354,860 km². The contiguous United States, China, India, Japan and 12 European countries, drawn here at their true size, add up to 23,000,000 km² — and still leave room. On a Mercator map Africa and Greenland look about the same; Africa is 14× larger.
Also inside, too small to label: United Kingdom · Ireland · Portugal · Netherlands · Belgium · Switzerland · Austria · Denmark
What the resolution says
- Its name
- “Correct the map: rebalancing global cartographic representation and promoting equitable representation of the world's regions, particularly Africa” — draft A/80/L.104, adopted on 4 September 2026 at the 80th session of the General Assembly.
- Who brought it
- Togo, on behalf of the African Group, with the backing of the African Union. Behind it stands the Correct the Map campaign that Africa No Filter and Speak Up Africa launched in August 2025.
- The vote
- 164 in favour, 1 against (the United States), 6 abstentions (Estonia, Georgia, Lithuania, Moldova, Serbia, Ukraine).
- What it asks
- Wider use of equal-area projections — Equal Earth by name — in education, in the media and on digital platforms: wherever a map is read for how big places are.
- What it does not do
- It is a recommendation, not a law: General Assembly resolutions bind nobody. It does not ban Mercator, which remains the right map for sailing and flying, where angles matter and areas do not.
Why Mercator misleads
Gerardus Mercator drew his map in 1569 for navigators. It keeps every compass bearing a straight line, and pays for that by stretching the world more and more the further it gets from the equator. Near the poles the stretch is enormous.
So Greenland (2,166,086 km²) looks the size of Africa (30,354,860 km²), which is 14× larger. Russia looks bigger than Africa; it is 17,075,400 km², a little over half. Europe and North America look larger than they are, and everything near the equator — Africa, India, Indonesia, Brazil — looks smaller.
Equal Earth, published by Bojan Šavrič, Tom Patterson and Bernhard Jenny in 2018, keeps every square kilometre the same size on the page. Shapes bend a little; sizes are true. It is free to use, and it is the projection Kartavera draws everything in.
Use the map
In class
The atlas slides from Mercator to Equal Earth, so students watch the poles deflate; every country can be picked up and dropped over another. Each country has a page with its true size, figures and sources, and the games quiz the same facts.
In the newsroom
Everything here is free to use and to link to. Every country and every pair of countries has a page with a share card drawn at true scale; the atlas opens on any comparison by address.
In your own work
The geometry is Natural Earth (public domain); the projection is Equal Earth (free). Figures carry their source and year — see data & sources.
- Is Kartavera the UN's official map?
- No. The United Nations has no official world map, and the resolution names a projection, not a product. Kartavera is an independent atlas drawn in that projection.
- Is the Equal Earth projection free to use?
- Yes. Its authors published it in 2018 for anyone to use, and open-source map libraries carry it. Kartavera draws it from public-domain Natural Earth data.
- Does the resolution ban the Mercator map?
- No. It recommends equal-area maps where relative size matters — classrooms, news, digital platforms. Mercator keeps compass bearings straight and stays the right choice for navigation.
- How much bigger is Africa than Greenland?
- About fourteen times: Africa is roughly 30.4 million km², Greenland 2.2 million km². On a Mercator map they look about the same size.