The Equal Earth Projection: A modern answer to map distortion
The story behind the creation of the Equal Earth projection in 2018. See how cartographers designed a modern, equal-area, and visually pleasing world map.
A new world map in the 21st century
It might seem that everything about flattening the globe had already been invented. Yet in 2018 three cartographers, Bojan Šavrič, Tom Patterson and Bernhard Jenny, published the Equal Earth projection. The trigger was a widely reported 2017 decision by Boston public schools to replace the Mercator map with the Gall-Peters map.
The authors wanted to show that Gall-Peters is not the only equal-area map, one that keeps the true proportions of areas. They set out to create a map with the same advantage that does not stretch continents vertically, so that it looks more natural to students and teachers.
Which projection inflates areas near the poles the most?
How was Equal Earth built?
Equal Earth is a pseudocylindrical projection: the parallels are straight lines and the meridians gently curved ones. The authors modeled its look on the popular Robinson projection, but unlike Robinson, Equal Earth keeps the proportions of areas. It has several practical advantages:
- Natural shapes: Africa and South America are not stretched vertically, as they are on the Gall-Peters map.
- True proportions: Greenland does not look larger than Africa, and continents near the Equator are not shrunk.
- Straight parallels: latitudes are easy to compare. You can see, for example, that New York (about 40.7° north) and Madrid (about 40.4°) lie almost at the same latitude.
- Simple equations: the projection is easy to program and quick to compute.
These features make Equal Earth well suited to thematic maps where comparing areas matters, such as the distribution of forests or population density. See how countries look in it on our interactive map.
2026: Equal Earth at the UN
Eight years after its publication, Equal Earth became a matter of international politics. On 4 September 2026 the UN General Assembly adopted the non-binding “Correct the Map” resolution, which encourages equal-area maps, Equal Earth in particular, wherever the sizes of continents are compared. We describe the vote and its practical effects in The UN's new world map.