New world map makes Africa look bigger: what’s the fuss about? Cartographers explain

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, called the Mercator Projection , greatly exaggerates land towards the north and south poles, which makes Africa look much smaller .

In the Mercator projection, countries near the north and south pole can be anywhere from two to 14 times their true size.

In the Equal Earth projection these distortions are minimised, making Africa look larger in comparison.

We asked Jack Swab and Derek Alderman , cartographers and geographers who study the social and communicative power of maps, to explain what’s going on.

What is a map projection? A map projection is a technique that cartographers (map-makers) use to transform the round, three-dimensional Earth into a flat, two-dimensional map that we see on the wall or on our computer screen.

As cartographers flatten the globe, the map becomes distorted, changing shapes and areas.

There is no map projection that does not distort the Earth, but some projections are better suited for some uses than others.

A cartographer’s job is to choose from the hundreds of different map projections, and consider where the map is focused and how it is going to be used.

No single projection is best for every use.

This new Equal Earth projection is better suited than Mercator for producing global scale world maps for educational, public communication and policy purposes.

The Equal Earth supports a more accurate geographic understanding of the relative sizes of countries and continents.

It provides a fairer perspective for the public to compare regions in terms of population, environment, development, politics and other global patterns.

Is the Mercator projection still useful? While the Mercator projection isn’t good for showing the size of the Earth’s landmasses, we won’t see it totally disappear.