EqualMap Equal Earth · 20°E Get updates
The Problem UN Resolution Vision Roadmap Get updates

Open source · Equal Earth, centered on Africa

EqualMap

A fair map for a fair world.

An open, interactive map service built on the equal-area Equal Earth projection, on a central meridian of 20°E — so Africa sits at the middle of the world, and every country appears at its true size.

See the difference Read the roadmap
The Equal Earth projection on a 20°E central meridian, placing Africa at the middle of the map. Every continent is drawn at its true relative area. Equal Earth · WGS84 20°E Central meridian 20°00′ E Natural Earth 1:110m
Rendered by packages/projection eqearth · lon_0=20
195+
Countries at true size
0%
Area distortion
20°E
Central meridian

— The problem

Africa is 14 times larger than Greenland.

On the Mercator projection — the one most of us grew up with — the two look about the same size. That is not a small error. It is the visual grammar of an entire worldview, repeated across classrooms, newsrooms and billions of screens.

Drag the divider. Both maps show the same world at the same width, on the same 20°E central meridian. On Mercator, Greenland looks about the size of Africa. On Equal Earth it shrinks to what it really is — a fourteenth of Africa — while Africa itself barely moves.

Mercator is shown from 84°N to 61°S: the projection runs to infinity at the poles, which is why every Mercator wall map is cropped. Equal Earth is drawn whole. Its meridians curve — that is the shape of the projection, and the price of holding every area true while keeping continents close to their globe shapes.

Mercator · 1569
∞

Built for navigation: it preserves angles, so it must distort area — without limit as you approach the poles.

Equal Earth · 2018
1:1

Area preserved everywhere, with the familiar feel of a globe. Greenland finally sits at one-fourteenth of Africa.

The Mercator map with every country drawn twice: a pale outline at the size Mercator gives it, and a solid shape at the area it really covers, anchored in the same place. Greenland's true shape is a small sliver inside an enormous outline, while Africa's solid shape almost fills its own outline.
The same world on a flat equal-area projection: straight vertical meridians, straight horizontal parallels, a rectangle the same shape as the Mercator map beside it, and every country at its true relative area with no gaps between them. Africa is large; Greenland is a fraction of the size Mercator gave it.
Mercator projection
Equal Earth projection
Gerardus Mercator · 1569 · 84°N–61°S
Šavrič, Patterson & Jenny · 2018

Drag the handle, or focus it and use the arrow keys

Africa Greenland

Greenland inflated by
16.5×
Canada inflated by
5.2×
United States inflated by
2.3×
Africa inflated by
1.1×

— The context

The United Nations resolution on Equal Earth.

In September 2026 the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution recommending the Equal Earth projection in place of Mercator for general-purpose world maps. The projection itself has been freely available since 2018 — what changed is that the default is now being questioned in public institutions.

A recommendation is not an implementation. Someone still has to build the tiles, the geocoder, the routing and the API — and keep them open. That is what this project is for.

EqualMap is an independent, open-source project. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or funded by the United Nations, or by the authors of the Equal Earth projection.

An open parchment world map with a compass, dividers and an ink pot — the long history of map-making.

Geographical equity

Every nation at its true proportional area — no silent bias toward the Global North.

Open standard

The projection is free to use. The code is MIT-licensed and the data comes from OpenStreetMap.

Boring where it counts

Equal Earth at world zoom; standard Mercator tiles, Photon and OSRM at street level.

— The vision

A map service that respects every nation equally.

A recommendation only becomes a default when there is something to switch to. EqualMap is meant to be that something: a map you can search, get directions on and embed, whose world view does not quietly inflate the north.

— Roadmap

From a static render to a map you can use.

Four phases and a wishlist. Dates are targets, not promises — ROADMAP.md in the repository is the source of truth.

Overall progress 0%
0 shipped 0 in progress 0 planned

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