UN Adopts New World Map, India May Look Bigger

The UN has backed a more accurate world map that shows Africa and other countries closer to their real size, highlighting the importance of geography and representation.

On 4 September 2026, the United Nations voted to adopt a resolution supporting a world map that represents countries and continents closer to their actual size. The resolution, proposed by Togo and strongly supported by the African Union, received support from 164 countries, including India, while the United States voted against it.

For centuries, the Mercator map, created by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator in 1569, has been widely used. It was designed mainly to help sailors navigate, but it significantly distorts the size of land areas. For example, Greenland appears almost as large as Africa, even though Africa is about 14 times bigger. India also appears smaller than it really is, while parts of Europe and North America appear larger.

The Equal Earth map, developed in 2018 by cartographers Bojan Savric, Tom Patterson and Bernhard Jenny, provides a more accurate representation of the relative size of continents and countries. However, the UN resolution is non-binding, so maps used by Google, schools and other organisations will not change immediately. Adoption could take years.

How Did World Maps Begin?

Maps have existed for thousands of years. The oldest known world map is the Babylonian Map of the World, created around the 6th century BCE in ancient Babylon, present-day Iraq. Later, Greek scholar Claudius Ptolemy created a more detailed world map around 150 CE.

During the 15th and 16th centuries, the Age of Exploration led to major improvements in mapping. In 1507, German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller created the first known map to show America and used the name “America” for the continent.

But no flat world map can perfectly represent a round Earth. The way maps show size can therefore influence how we understand the world.