Africa is much bigger than most maps show, and a new campaign wants that fixed

The Brief

African advocacy groups launched a campaign to replace the Mercator map with the Equal Earth projection.

The African Union endorsed the effort, saying the distorted map minimizes Africa’s global importance.

Experts say the Mercator projection, created for navigation centuries ago, has little use today.

On most world maps, Greenland and Africa look about the same size. In reality, Africa is so large that at least 14 Greenlands could fit inside it.

That distortion, common on the widely used Mercator projection, is driving a campaign led by African advocacy groups and now backed by the African Union. Supporters say the way Africa is shown on maps affects how the world sees the continent of more than 1.4 billion people.

Africa appears too small on most modern maps

The backstor