UN urges wider use of maps that show Africa’s scale accurately

The United Nations General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to encourage governments, schools and technology companies to stop using maps that make Africa appear much smaller than its actual scale, according to a UN news summary dated September 4.

The appeal concerns the presentation of geographic size. Map projections necessarily make trade-offs when representing a spherical planet on a flat surface; some familiar projections substantially alter the relative size of regions.

The UN summary describes an encouragement to change mapping practices. This briefing does not characterise the vote as a binding worldwide ban on any particular map.