Africa is about 14 times larger than Greenland.
Yet on most traditional world maps, Greenland can appear almost as large as the entire African continent.
That is not because Africa is being measured incorrectly. It is because of the way the world has been drawn for generations.
Now, that familiar picture is being questioned. A new map projection is giving Africa a more accurate sense of scale, while a recent United Nations resolution has brought the issue into a much wider conversation.
So, why has Africa looked smaller than it really is?
The story begins with a map most of us have seen countless times.
Why Does Africa Look Smaller on Traditional Maps?
The Earth is round, but a world map is flat. Turning a globe into a flat image always creates some form of distortion.
One of the most familiar examples is the Mercator projection, developed in the 16th century. It was designed mainly for navigation because it makes it easier to plot courses using compass directions.
The trade-off is that areas become increasingly enlarged the further they are from the Equator.
Africa stretches across the Equator, while Greenland is much further north. On a Mercator map, Greenland is therefore visually enlarged compared with its actual size.
That is why the two can look surprisingly similar on a traditional world map.
In reality, Africa is about 14 times larger than Greenland. The Equal Earth map shows this relationship much more clearly by preserving the relative area of continents.
This does not mean the Mercator map is a bad map. It was created for a specific purpose and remains useful for navigation.
The issue comes when you use it to understand the actual size of countries and continents.
A Different Way to See Africa
This is where Equal Earth changes the conversation.
Developed in 2018, the Equal Earth projection is an equal area projection. In simple terms, it aims to show land areas in their correct proportions.
Africa therefore appears much larger than Greenland, because that is how large the two landmasses actually are in relation to each other.
The recent UN resolution, adopted by the General Assembly on 4 September 2026, does not require everyone to stop using Mercator or replace it with one particular map. Instead, it encourages the use of more accurate equal-area projections when the relative size of continents matters.
That distinction is important.
There is no single perfect world map. Every projection has to make choices about shape, distance, direction, or area.
The real question is whether the map is appropriate for what you are trying to understand.
Why Africa Map Size Matters for Tourism
You might wonder what any of this has to do with travel.
Quite a lot, actually.
Maps help you understand distance, location, and scale. Before you travel somewhere, a map can shape your first impression of how far away it is and how it relates to other places.
When Africa is visually reduced, it can also be easy to underestimate the scale and diversity of the continent.
Africa is not one destination. It is a vast continent made up of more than 50 countries, each with its own cultures, histories, landscapes, food, and travel experiences.
Ghana is one example.
A traveller may know Ghana as a relatively small country on the West African coast, but even within Ghana there is considerable geographical and cultural variety. Accra offers a very different experience from Kumasi. The coast feels different from the northern regions. Historical sites, forests, beaches, cities and cultural communities all form part of the country's tourism landscape.
Looking at Africa at a more accurate scale helps put that diversity into perspective.
It also reminds you that travelling across Africa is not like moving between neighbouring cities. Distances can be significant, borders matter, and each country offers its own experience.
Africa, Seen at Its True Scale
The conversation about Africa's map size is ultimately about perspective.
Africa has not changed size. Greenland has not suddenly become smaller. What is changing is the way we represent the world and how those representations influence what we see.
The attention around Equal Earth and the UN resolution is therefore not simply about replacing one map with another. It is about becoming more conscious of what a map shows us and what it may distort.
When you see Africa at its true relative size, its scale becomes much easier to appreciate. So does the incredible diversity of a continent that stretches across vast distances, regions, cultures, and landscapes.
Africa map size is not about making Africa look bigger. It is about showing Africa as big as it has always been.
The next time you look at a world map, take a closer look at Africa. You may realize that the world was never quite as small as the map made it seem.
Ready to explore Africa beyond the map?
Discover more stories, destinations, and travel experiences from Ghana and across the continent on Adansi Blog.
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