{"id":371118,"date":"2026-09-05T16:07:55","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T10:37:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/?p=371118"},"modified":"2026-09-05T16:32:40","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T11:02:40","slug":"mercator-map-and-equal-earth-projection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/mercator-map-and-equal-earth-projection\/","title":{"rendered":"Mercator Map and Equal Earth Projection"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"content-box-green\">\n<p><strong>News:<\/strong> The United Nations General Assembly voted to phase out the traditional Mercator map in favour of the Equal Earth projection to accurately reflect the true proportions of global landmasses.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h2 class=\"red-h2-box\"><strong>About Mercator Map<\/strong><\/h2>\n<figure id=\"attachment_371120\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-371120\" style=\"width: 361px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-371120\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/5000-300x240.jpg?resize=361%2C289&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Mercator Map and Equal Earth Projection\" width=\"361\" height=\"289\" srcset=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/5000.avif 300w, https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/5000.avif 1024w, https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/5000.avif 768w, https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/5000.avif 1536w, https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/5000.avif 1568w, https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/5000.avif 1880w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 361px) 100vw, 361px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-371120\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Source: Guardian<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Mercator map <\/strong>is a<strong> cylindrical map projection which is derived mathematically.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Features:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>It has a<strong> grid pattern with longitudes (or meridians) and latitudes<\/strong> (or parallels)<strong> at 90-degree angles.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li data-section-id=\"spo0ow\" data-start=\"0\" data-end=\"46\">The<strong> lines of longitude are evenly spaced. <\/strong><\/li>\n<li data-section-id=\"spo0ow\" data-start=\"0\" data-end=\"46\">The <strong>lines of latitude become farther apart away from the Equator.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li data-section-id=\"spo0ow\" data-start=\"0\" data-end=\"46\"><strong>Equator<\/strong> is located at the<strong> centre of the map.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Creator: <\/strong>This map\u00a0was designed in<strong> 1569 by the Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator<\/strong>\u00a0to help European explorers navigate across the world.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Problem with Mercator Map:<\/strong> The Mercator map <strong>makes countries and regions near the equator look smaller,<\/strong> while <strong>areas near the poles appear much larger.<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>For example,<\/strong> on the Mercator map<strong>, Africa appears similar in size to Greenland,<\/strong> even though Africa is about 14 times larger.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 class=\"red-h2-box\"><strong>About Equal Earth Projection<\/strong><\/h2>\n<figure style=\"width: 437px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/images.indianexpress.com\/2026\/09\/Equal_Earth_projection_SW.jpg?resize=437%2C214&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"The Equal Earth projection\" width=\"437\" height=\"214\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Source: Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Definition: <\/strong>The Equal Earth map projection is an <strong>equal-area pseudocylindrical projection<\/strong> for world maps.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Feature:<\/strong> In this map, the<strong> meridians of Equal Earth<\/strong> are <strong>equally spaced<\/strong> and <strong>do not excessively curve outwards.<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>There are loosely<strong> approximate elliptical arcs<\/strong> that <strong>mimic the overall appearance of a globe.\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Developed by:<\/strong> The <strong>Equal Earth projection was <\/strong>developed in<strong> 2018 by an international team of cartographers.\u00a0<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>It was promoted by Togo\u2019s <strong>#CorrectTheMap<\/strong> campaign.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Advantage:<\/strong> It gives a more<strong> accurate representation of the actual size of continents.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Adoption of new map: The United Nations General Assembly voted to phase out the traditional Mercator map in favour of the Equal Earth projection to accurately reflect the true proportions of global landmasses.<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Not legally binding:<\/strong> The UN resolution does not force countries to stop using the Mercator map, but it could influence <strong>school textbooks, technology and other mapping systems<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>News: The United Nations General Assembly voted to phase out the traditional Mercator map in favour of the Equal Earth projection to accurately reflect the true proportions of global landmasses. About Mercator Map Mercator map is a cylindrical map projection which is derived mathematically. Features: It has a grid pattern with longitudes (or meridians) and&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/mercator-map-and-equal-earth-projection\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Mercator Map and Equal Earth Projection<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10366,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1566,164,11209,12039],"tags":[11872,12085],"class_list":["post-371118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-factly-articles","category-international-relations-daily-factly-articles","category-geography-in-news","category-knolls","tag-9pm-daily-factly","tag-news-on-air","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10366"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=371118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371118\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}