What is the difference between the Mercator and Equal Earth map projections?

The Mercator projection (1569) is a conformal cylindrical map that preserves local shapes and compass angles, making it ideal for marine navigation, but it severely distorts land areas away from the equator—making Greenland appear as large as Africa. The Equal Earth projection (2018) is an equal-area pseudocylindrical projection that preserves the true relative sizes of all continents and oceans while maintaining aesthetically pleasing curved meridians.

Why did the United Nations adopt the Equal Earth map projection?

The United Nations Geospatial Information Section and UN-GGIM officially adopted the Equal Earth projection to eliminate polar area bias in international data reporting, statistics, and education. It ensures that Africa (which is 14 times larger than Greenland), South America, and developing nations in the Global South are portrayed in their accurate physical proportions without distortion.

Who created the Equal Earth map projection?

The Equal Earth projection was created in 2018 by cartographers Bojan Šavrič, Tom Patterson, and Bernhard Jenny as a visually appealing, mathematically rigorous alternative to the severely sheared Gall-Peters projection and the non-equal-area Robinson projection.

Projection Morph

Mercator (1569) ↔ Equal Earth (2018)

Mercator Conformal (1569)

Equal Earth Equal-Area (2018)

Layers & Grid

15° Graticule Tropics & Equator Tissot Indicatrices Motion Vectors

Scale Alignment

Lock Equator Scale

State: 100% Mercator

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True Land Area: —

Visual Distortion: —

Area Inflation Index: —

100%

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MERCATOR EQUAL EARTH 0%

Projecting the curved 3D surface of the Earth onto a flat 2D map introduces inevitable mathematical distortions in shape, area, distance, or direction (Carl Friedrich Gauss's Theorema Egregium).

Mercator Projection (1569)

Invented by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator for nautical navigation. It is a conformal projection, meaning it preserves local angles and directions. Any straight line on a Mercator map is a rhumb line (line of constant compass bearing).

The Cost: Extreme area distortion that explodes as latitude approaches the poles ($s \propto 1/\cos^2 \varphi$). High-latitude landmasses like Greenland, Canada, and Russia appear colossal, while equatorial continents like Africa and South America appear severely shrunken in comparison.

Equal Earth Projection (2018)

Created in 2018 by Bojan Šavrič, Tom Patterson, and Bernhard Jenny. It is an equal-area pseudocylindrical projection that preserves relative land area across every continent while maintaining aesthetically pleasing curved meridians and straight parallels.

It was created specifically to provide a visually balanced, geometrically accurate alternative to the Gall-Peters projection (which suffers from severe vertical shear) and the Robinson projection (which is neither conformal nor equal-area).

Key Comparisons

Region	True Land Area	Mercator Appearance	Equal Earth Appearance
Africa	30,370,000 km²	Same apparent size as Greenland	14x larger than Greenland
Greenland	2,190,000 km²	Appears comparable to Africa	Accurate 1/14th of Africa
Russia	17,100,000 km²	Appears twice the size of Africa	Accurate half the size of Africa
Antarctica	14,200,000 km²	Infinite horizontal strip	True compact polar continent

The United Nations Adoption of Equal Earth

In international diplomacy, climate science, and sustainable development, accurate visual representation is critical. For centuries, the widespread use of the 1569 Mercator projection systematically marginalized tropical and southern nations by exaggerating European and North American landmasses while drastically diminishing the true geographic scale of the African continent and South America.

The United Nations Geospatial Information Section and the UN Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM) formally endorsed and adopted the 2018 Equal Earth projection as the standard world map projection for official UN publications, thematic reports, Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) dashboards, and international education.

The UN's adoption establishes Equal Earth as the global gold standard for world mapping: mathematically equal-area, free from imperial polar bias, and visually balanced without the jarring distortions of earlier equal-area attempts like Gall-Peters.

Understanding Map Projections

Mercator Projection (1569)

Equal Earth Projection (2018)

Key Comparisons

The United Nations Adoption of Equal Earth

Mercator Projection vs Equal Earth Projection: The Mathematical Comparison

Why the Mercator Map Distorts World Geography

The 2018 Equal Earth Map: Modern Solution to the Projection Problem

The Historic United Nations Vote and Adoption