UN votes to adopt new world map to reflect Africa's true size - BBC News

The Togo-sponsored resolution was backed by 164 nations - with the US as the only nation to vote against it.

Image caption, The Mercator projection is the map widely used across the globe but inaccurately depicts the sizes of countries and continents

The UN General Assembly has voted to replace the traditional world map with one that more accurately reflects the size of Africa.

The "Correct the Map" resolution, sponsored by Togo and backed by African Union (AU) members, passed with the support of 164 nations, including France and the UK. The US was the only nation to vote against it - while there were six abstentions.

The UN vote is non-binding but will see changes to the maps used by institutions around the world.

The Mercator map, which has been in common use since the 16th Century, has come in for criticism as it shows Africa as being of similar in size to Greenland, even though it is actually 14 times larger.