Have you ever looked at a world map and wondered why some countries seem much larger than others, even though that doesn't match the real world? Well, that’s because the map you're used to is likely ...

Ever since we discovered Earth was round, mapmakers have struggled to create a map that accurately shows our planet in 2D. Most notably, Africa always ends up appearing far smaller than it ...

When enlarged into a world map, though, Mercator becomes problematic, Braun said. The map’s mistakes were not likely to be a conspiracy against Africa or the Global South, but its continued use ...

When this world map was charted in the 1600s according to the Mercator’s projection, the idea was that ships could use the lines of longitude and latitude as a from of navigation.

According to the Institute, the map’s importance transcends geography however, its shape forcing us to conceive the world in a different way, a way not delineated as East and West.

The Gall-Peters projection map addressed part of this issue by making the landmasses more rounded to what they should look like. However, it distorted the shape of the continents.

The three cartographers created the Equal Earth map in response to public schools in Boston adopting another map, the Gall-Peter map projection, to depict the true sizes of the continents in 2017.

The popular map projection, which is also used by Google, shows the continents and countries in disproportionate sizes IT'S been revealed that the world map we've used for centuries doesn't ...

But if you want a better idea of the relative size of the world’s landmasses, you need a map that distorts shape but preserves area, like the Peters projection does. Mercator’s original 1569 ...

The institution, since 2013, has experimented with different projections, including the Robinson map, but in 2024 settled on the Equal Earth map. “The World Bank Group is committed to ensuring ...