A newly adopted United Nations world map is reshaping how Africa is represented, prompting a closer examination of how traditional cartographic projections distort the continent’s actual size and proportions. The shift highlights long-standing debates over accuracy in global mapping, where familiar Mercator-style maps exaggerate distances near the poles while shrinking equatorial regions. Experts argue that alternative projections, like the Gall-Peters, offer a more geographically faithful depiction but come with their own trade-offs in shape representation. This change could influence education, navigation, and public perception of global geography.
As the UN adopts a new world map to reflect Africa's true size, let's take a closer look at what different maps get right and wrong.
