The Best Equal Earth Maps for Schools

by Christopher O'Keeffe September 24, 2026

By Christopher O’Keeffe, Managing Director of Mapworld

Which Equal Earth wall map belongs in your school? I would start with the Pacific-centred edition for most Australian classrooms—but the Africa-centred, Americas-centred and south-up maps each teach something the first cannot. This guide compares the four directly, recommends a size and finish for different rooms, and sets out activities that turn a world map into a working part of geography, history, mathematics and global studies.

If you ask a room of students to point to Australia on a familiar world map, most will find it quickly. Ask them what lies directly across the Pacific, or how large Africa is compared with Greenland, and the map on the wall may make the answer harder than it needs to be.

That is not the students’ fault. A world map is a designed view of a globe. Its projection determines what changes when the curved surface becomes a flat sheet. Its centre determines which places meet in the middle and which are divided at the edges. Its orientation determines what appears above everything else. Students absorb those decisions every time they glance at the wall, whether or not a teacher has named them.

Equal Earth gives schools an unusually useful starting point. It is an equal-area projection: countries and continents occupy the correct proportions of the mapped surface. It keeps their forms recognisable and offers a clear political world map for daily reference. In September 2026, the United Nations General Assembly endorsed wider use of Equal Earth and other equal-area approaches when relative size matters. The resolution is not an instruction to Australian schools to replace their maps, and it does not endorse any particular Mapworld product. It does make the choice of a classroom world map newly worth discussing. The UN’s account of the decision and my longer article, The UN Has Endorsed the Equal Earth Map: What It Means for Australia, Schools and World Maps, cover the wider story.

This article has a narrower purpose. You have decided that Equal Earth belongs in a school. Which version should you buy?

We offer four:

• World Equal Earth Wall Map — Pacific-Centred

• World Equal Earth Wall Map — Africa-Centred

• World Equal Earth Wall Map — Americas-Centred

• World Equal Earth Upside Down Wall Map — Austral Earth

They are not four identical products distinguished only by a title. Each gives students a different first encounter with the same planet. My task here is to make that distinction useful to a teacher, librarian, school buyer or parent who has a real wall, a real budget and a particular group of students in mind.

If you are buying one map, choose Pacific-centred. If you are buying two, I would usually add Africa-centred. If your aim is to get a whole school asking questions about perspective, put the south-up map somewhere highly visible. The Americas-centred map becomes especially valuable for Western Hemisphere study and for a four-map comparison that holds the projection constant while changing the centre.

You can browse the wider World Wall Maps collection and Educational Products collection, but the four direct product links above are the right place to compare current sizes, finishes and availability.

Quick Answer: Which Map for Which School Space?

Space or teaching goal	My first choice	What it adds
General Australian classroom	Pacific-centred Equal Earth	Australia, Asia, Oceania and the Pacific stay connected on an equal-area world map.
Primary-school library	Pacific-centred plus Africa-centred	Children can see that moving the centre changes the picture without moving the countries.
Secondary geography or humanities room	Pacific-centred plus Africa-centred	A strong pair for regional relationships, area, global history and representation.
Modern history, languages or American studies	Americas-centred Equal Earth	North and South America remain together between their two ocean systems.
Inquiry corridor or learning commons	South-up Austral Earth	Starts a conversation about why north is usually at the top.
One-map purchase for a standard teaching room	Pacific-centred, Large	The most versatile perspective at a practical teaching size.
Projection-literacy display	All four Equal Earth editions plus a globe	Separates projection, centre and orientation in a way students can see.

The table is a recommendation, not a rule. A school with a strong African studies program might rightly put the Africa-centred edition first. Another might have a small wall where a 1000 mm map will be used more often than a 2000 mm sheet mounted too high. The point is to choose deliberately.

What Equal Earth Actually Changes—and What It Does Not

Equal Earth was developed in 2018 by Bojan Šavrič, Tom Patterson and Bernhard Jenny. Its central promise is simple to explain: equal areas on the globe occupy equal areas on the map. If one region covers twice the area of another, it should appear twice as large on the printed sheet. The projection’s rounded outline and gently curved meridians help retain an attractive and broadly familiar view of the continents.

This makes a difference to ordinary school questions. Which is larger, Africa or Greenland? How much of Earth’s land lies in the tropics? What proportion of the world’s forest or population is being discussed? How does South America compare with Europe? Students should be able to use the map’s apparent area as a reasonable visual starting point.

Many people first encountered the world through a Mercator map. Mercator is a conformal projection: it preserves local angles, and constant-bearing routes can be represented as straight lines. That gave it an important navigational purpose. Its tradeoff is the severe enlargement of places towards the poles. Greenland and northern regions become visually oversized relative to Africa, South America and equatorial regions. Equal Earth takes a different tradeoff by preserving relative area instead.

Neither map is a magic window. Equal Earth does not preserve every shape, distance or direction. A straight line drawn across the sheet is not automatically the shortest route between two places. A globe is still the best immediate way to see Earth as a continuous curved surface. Local topographic maps, nautical charts and navigation maps have different jobs. The school lesson is not that one map is good and every other map is bad. It is that a map must be chosen for what it is meant to show.

There are three separate choices in our four-map range:

1. Projection: all four use Equal Earth, so all preserve relative area.

2. Centre: Pacific, Africa and Americas editions shift the part of the globe occupying the visual middle and the places appearing at the edges.

3. Orientation: Austral Earth turns south to the top while retaining the equal-area projection.

That distinction is educational gold. With the four maps beside one another, a student can ask what changed and answer precisely. The planet did not change. The projection did not change. The centre or orientation did.

For the history of the UN decision and a fuller comparison with Mercator and Gall–Peters, see my Equal Earth article. Here I want to stay with the school-buying decision and the lessons it can support.

1. Pacific-Centred: The Best All-Round Equal Earth Map for Australian Schools

The World Equal Earth Wall Map — Pacific-Centred is the map I would put on the main classroom wall.

It is centred around 150° east. Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Southeast Asia, East Asia and the Pacific island nations read as part of a connected region. The Pacific is a single ocean in the centre of the page instead of two pieces on opposite edges. The Americas lie across it; Africa and Europe remain visible; every region keeps its correct proportional area.

This matters more than it may sound. An Atlantic-centred map can make a Pacific route feel interrupted because students must jump from one edge of the paper to the other. A Pacific-centred sheet lets them follow relationships among islands, coasts and ocean basins as continuous geography. In an Australian school, those relationships appear in news, family stories, language study, climate, migration, trade, travel and history almost every week.

It is also a sensible everyday reference. These are detailed political maps, not abstract projection diagrams. Students can find countries, capitals, major settlements, islands, oceans and reference lines. A teacher can answer “where is that?” without first changing slides or opening a browser. The map keeps context visible after the question has passed.

What I would teach with it

For Years 3–6, begin with Australia’s neighbours and the three broad Pacific cultural-geographic regions often described as Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia. Trace a voyage from Perth to Singapore, from Darwin to Dili, from Brisbane to Port Moresby, or from Sydney across the Pacific. Do not turn these into rote line-drawing exercises; ask what water, island groups and other countries lie along the way.

For secondary students, use the map to discuss the Indo-Pacific, ocean currents, El Niño and La Niña, Pacific climate risk, shipping, migration, diplomacy and global supply chains. Pair the equal-area wall map with current digital layers when the lesson requires live sea-surface temperatures, a recent cyclone track or updated trade data.

One simple activity is to ask students to draw an imagined route between Australia and the west coast of the Americas on two differently centred maps. Where does the route cross a printed edge? Does that edge have any meaning on Earth? The answer teaches the difference between a map seam and a geographic barrier.

Who should buy it

This is the strongest first map for most Australian primary and secondary classrooms, libraries, geography departments and learning commons. It is also the map I would choose if a school wants one common global view across multiple rooms. Consistency makes it easier for teachers to refer to “our world map” while still leaving room for alternative views in specialist spaces.

The product page currently lists a 2026 edition. Its Standard size is 1000 × 532 mm, Large is 1400 × 745 mm, and Mega is 2000 × 1064 mm. I would usually choose the Large laminated version for a standard room and the Mega where students need to read it from farther back. Confirm the live Pacific-centred product page before ordering, as formats and editions can change.

2. Africa-Centred: The Best Equal Earth Map for Area and Perspective

The World Equal Earth Wall Map — Africa-Centred gives Africa a central position and its proper relative size. Europe sits above it, the Atlantic opens to one side, the Indian Ocean to the other, and the relationships among Africa, the Middle East, South Asia and the Americas become easier to examine.

Equal-area projection does the mathematical work. Centring does the editorial work. A student accustomed to Europe occupying the middle of a world map may immediately notice that the sheet feels different, even though no country has moved. That reaction is worth investigating rather than correcting away.

We sometimes talk about map bias as though it can be fixed by changing one image to another. It is more productive to give students several maps and ask them to identify the choices. Africa-centred Equal Earth is valuable because it can be compared directly with Pacific-centred Equal Earth. Same projection. Same land areas. Different central meridian. The difference in attention becomes visible without needing to change the area calculation at the same time.

What I would teach with it

Begin with area. Africa covers roughly fourteen times the land area of Greenland, yet a Mercator world map can make them seem much closer in size. Give students paper cut-outs or a digital overlay and ask them to predict before measuring. The point is not to stage a trick. Ask what their first estimate relied on. Was it a remembered map, a number, a news association, or familiarity with a place?

Then move beyond the famous comparison. Trace historic and contemporary relationships across the Sahara, Mediterranean, Red Sea, Indian Ocean and Atlantic. Discuss trade, climate, languages, migration, biodiversity and urbanisation with specific sources rather than treating Africa as one uniform region. Equal area is a useful correction to visual scale; it is not a substitute for studying the diversity of 54 countries and many histories.

For older students, compare global thematic data—population, land use, forest cover, rainfall or emissions per person—on equal-area and non-equal-area bases. Ask when area should matter to the visual argument and when a chart or table communicates more honestly than a shaded map.

Who should buy it

I would choose Africa-centred as the second Equal Earth map for a school. It suits a library, humanities department, global studies room or corridor display opposite a Pacific-centred map. A pair of 1400 mm sheets gives students a particularly clean comparison. If the wall is smaller, two 1000 mm sheets at student eye level may be more educational than one inaccessible giant.

The Africa-centred product page currently identifies its edition as 2025. The listed sizes are 1000 × 532, 1400 × 740 and 2000 × 1064 mm. Note the Large height differs slightly from the Pacific and Americas versions when planning an exact side-by-side installation.

3. Americas-Centred: The Best for Western Hemisphere Studies

The World Equal Earth Wall Map — Americas-Centred is centred near 90° west. North America, Central America, the Caribbean and South America occupy the middle. The Pacific lies to their west and the Atlantic to their east.

That view is surprisingly useful to an Australian school. We sometimes teach “the Americas” as separate units or as places reached by two unrelated ocean routes. A map that keeps both continents together makes their environmental range, migration histories, languages, trade routes and coast-to-coast relationships easier to see. It also invites questions about where Australia sits in relation to the Americas across the Pacific, and how the Atlantic connects them with Europe and Africa.

The map is not needed in every Year 4 classroom. In a school teaching Spanish or Portuguese, senior modern history, American politics, trans-Pacific trade or the environment of the Amazon and Andes, however, it can earn its place as a specialist everyday reference.

What I would teach with it

One activity begins at the equator. Ask students to follow it through South America and across both oceans, then identify comparable latitudes in Africa and Southeast Asia. Move to the tropics and the polar regions. The equal-area base helps students compare the extent of land at those latitudes while the centred layout keeps the American landmass intact.

For history, place two route threads on the map: one across the Atlantic, the other across the Pacific. Ask students to identify the periods, technologies, peoples and powers associated with each route. Do not reduce colonisation, the Atlantic slave trade or Indigenous histories to a single arrow. The thread is only a prompt to investigate evidence at a more appropriate scale.

For environmental studies, compare the Amazon, Andes, Arctic, Caribbean and southern cone. Then put a physical map or current satellite image beside the political Equal Earth sheet. That change of source reminds students that the world map offers an overview, not every layer of explanation.

Who should buy it

Choose this as the second map where the curriculum has a strong American focus. In a four-map set, it completes a very instructive progression: Pacific, Africa, Americas, and south-up. The three north-up maps can be displayed in a row, with the south-up map nearby as the orientation challenge.

The current Americas-centred product page identifies a 2026 edition and lists Standard 1000 × 532 mm, Large 1400 × 745 mm and Mega 2000 × 1064 mm sizes.

4. Upside Down / Austral Earth: The Best Map for Asking Why North Is Up

The World Equal Earth Upside Down Wall Map, also called Austral Earth, turns south towards the top while retaining Equal Earth’s correct relative areas. It is Pacific-centred, so Australia and its neighbours remain in a connected regional view—but Australia now appears near the upper portion of the sheet, with Antarctica along the top.

The name does much of the teaching before a lesson begins. “Upside down” compared with what? A globe in space has no preferred top. North-up mapping is a useful shared convention. It helps us read thousands of other maps quickly. But a convention is not a law of physics, and putting south at the top exposes how deeply we have learned to treat it as one.

The south-up edition is not an argument that students should stop learning north-up maps. I want them to read both fluently. It is a companion that forces an honest pause: if the map seems strange, what exactly did I expect to see, and why?

What I would teach with it

Put the south-up map beside a north-up Pacific-centred Equal Earth map. Ask students to locate the equator, Australia, Indonesia, South America and Antarctica on both. The projection and centre remain broadly comparable. Orientation has changed. Ask which geographic relationships have changed. The answer is none: only the way they are placed on the page.

Next, turn a globe so the South Pole is uppermost from the class’s viewpoint. Ask whether anyone needs to rename north and south. Then rotate a local map while keeping a compass fixed. These small actions separate directional language from page position.

For older students, discuss why a north-up convention became dominant, what it helps us do, and how a persistent visual convention can influence ideas of importance. Avoid the easy claim that everything about a north-up map is wrong. Its utility and its cultural history can both be examined.

Who should buy it

I like this in a library, geography department, inquiry corridor or shared learning space where students of different ages can notice it repeatedly. It can also anchor a school exhibition on maps and perspective. For very young students, I would keep a conventional north-up map available beside it so the lesson is comparison rather than bewilderment.

The current Austral Earth product page identifies a 2026 edition and lists 1000 × 536, 1400 × 750 and 2000 × 1072 mm sizes. Its aspect differs slightly from the other editions. Measure the finished display, particularly if you are framing all four as a matched installation.

Compare the Four Product Specifications

The details below reflect the live Mapworld pages checked on 23 September 2026. They can change; the direct product page is the authority at purchase time.

Equal Earth edition	Central viewpoint	Orientation	Listed edition	Standard	Large	Mega
Pacific-centred	150°E; Asia–Pacific and Australia	North-up	2026	1000 × 532 mm	1400 × 745 mm	2000 × 1064 mm
Africa-centred	0°; Africa and Atlantic-facing relationships	North-up	2025	1000 × 532 mm	1400 × 745 mm	2000 × 1064 mm
Americas-centred	90°W; Western Hemisphere	North-up	2026	1000 × 532 mm	1400 × 745 mm	2000 × 1064 mm
Upside Down / Austral Earth	150°E; Australia and Pacific	South-up	2026	1000 × 536 mm	1400 × 750 mm	2000 × 1072 mm

All four currently offer paper, laminated, laminated with timber hang rails, canvas and canvas with timber hang rails. Standard and Large paper maps are listed on 160 gsm stock, Mega paper maps on 120 gsm stock, and canvas on 395 gsm HP Professional Matte Canvas. Hang-railed orders may require up to ten working days. Please verify the selected size–finish combination and dispatch estimate on its product page before you place a school order.

Is One Equal Earth Map Enough?

Yes, for a school beginning with limited space or budget. A single large, well-placed Pacific-centred Equal Earth map will do more good than four maps that students never approach. It provides a daily reference, a fairer basis for area comparison and a regional view particularly relevant to Australia.

But two maps reveal something one cannot. Put Pacific-centred and Africa-centred versions side by side. Ask students which countries changed size. The answer is that their relative areas have not. Ask which region seems central. The answer changes immediately. This is the cleanest demonstration I know of the difference between a projection and a chosen centre.

Three maps allow a school to add orientation. Pacific-centred and Africa-centred show a change of central meridian; the south-up edition shows a change of what sits at the top. Students can keep the categories separate. A fourth, Americas-centred map extends the comparison across another central meridian and offers a substantial specialist reference for Western Hemisphere topics.

There is a practical middle course if four wall spaces are unavailable. Keep one map permanently mounted and store the smaller companion editions in protective tubes or flat drawers. Bring them out for projection lessons, parent evenings and library displays. The drawback is that stored maps do not work quietly between lessons. If a corridor or shared library wall is available, a permanent second viewpoint has greater daily value.

Do not mistake quantity for pedagogy. A school can buy a complete set and still leave every map as wallpaper. It can also buy one map and build a thoughtful program of questions around it. The right number depends on whether the school will actually use the differences among them.

Size, Finish and Placement: Buy for the Room You Have

The most common disappointment with a detailed wall map is not a faulty map. It is a good map installed where nobody can read it.

Standard: 1000 mm wide

The Standard edition suits a small classroom, reading corner, office, home-learning space or a closely viewed set of several maps. It is big enough to show the projection clearly, but students at the far side of a large classroom will not read the smallest labels. Mount it where they can walk up to it. If four maps will be compared at once, four Standard sheets can make a more accessible wall than four Mega sheets spread beyond a single line of sight.

Large: 1400 mm wide

The Large edition is my usual school recommendation. It gives the political detail more space and looks substantial without demanding a two-metre wall bay. Before ordering, use low-tack tape to mark a rectangle approximately 1400 mm wide and the edition’s actual listed height. Stand at the back of the room. Can you see the place names you expect students to use, or only the country outlines? If possible, test with a printed sample at the intended scale.

Do not overlook the five- to ten-millimetre height variations among the four Large editions. They are insignificant for most individual installations but matter if a facilities team is planning a close four-frame grid.

Mega: 2000 mm wide

The Mega edition belongs in a large geography room, library, assembly area or learning commons. It has the presence to invite attention from across a space and enough physical room for students to gather around it. Check not only the wall but delivery access, the route through doorways, lighting, mounting hardware and the distance from which students will actually read it.

If the room is long and narrow, size up. If it is small but crowded, mounting a giant map above cabinets may make it less useful than a Large map at eye level.

Paper, laminate, canvas or rails?

I would choose laminate for an actively taught classroom map. It protects against frequent handling and can be used for short-lived annotations with suitable whiteboard markers, subject to product care guidance. Test the marker in a discreet area and clean marks promptly. Do not use permanent marker or pins through the map.

Choose paper when the school will frame or permanently mount the map behind a suitable protective surface. Do not rely on ordinary tape for a large paper sheet; it can curl, tear or stain. The paper weight varies by size, as the table note above explains.

Choose canvas for a library, office, reception space or other location where a softer, more finished display is valued more than write-on use. Its textured surface changes the character of the room but not the map’s underlying information. Hang rails give a clean suspended presentation without full framing; check the lead time and mounting requirements before setting an installation date.

I would inspect glare at the actual time of day the map will be taught from. A bright window reflected across a laminated Pacific can make the most carefully chosen map difficult to use. Try a different wall, adjust lighting, or reserve canvas for a formal display and laminate for a teaching wall. Place the map so students can approach it, including students using mobility aids. A two-metre map hung too high is not a two-metre teaching map.

Our guides What Size Wall Map Do I Need? and Paper vs Laminated vs Canvas Maps go deeper on measuring and finishes.

Seven Lessons That Make the Four Maps Work

You do not need a full term devoted to cartography. Short, repeated uses often do more to develop geographic thinking than one spectacular projection lesson followed by a year of ignoring the wall.

Lesson 1: What did the map make you look at first?

Place the Pacific-, Africa- and Americas-centred maps in a sequence. Give each student ten seconds with each map and ask them to write the first three regions they noticed. Combine the answers. Did central places appear more often? Did colour or label density matter? Were their choices shaped by what they expected to see?

Then ask what changed between maps. The continent areas are consistent. The centre moved. Students have produced their own evidence that map design directs attention.

For younger pupils, this can be a verbal conversation. Older students can tally responses, make a small frequency chart and discuss whether the sample is representative.

Lesson 2: How large is Africa?

Ask students to estimate the area ratio of Africa to Greenland on a familiar Mercator-style world map. Record the estimates before showing the Africa-centred Equal Earth edition. The ratio is about fourteen to one. Invite students to identify exactly which earlier visual cue led them to a different estimate.

Continue with comparisons that do not have a rehearsed answer. Compare South America with Europe, or Australia with countries students assume are much larger because of their political prominence. Check the numbers with a reliable dataset. The learning lies in reconciling a visual estimate with evidence, not in memorising a single headline ratio.

Our earlier essay Greenland for Sale: A Gall-Peters Perspective on Cartographic Ego and Arctic Aspirations offers a lively companion reading for senior classes examining how maps and rhetoric interact.

Lesson 3: Where does the Pacific end?

Follow an imagined journey from eastern Australia through Fiji and Samoa to Hawai‘i and the west coast of the Americas on the Pacific-centred map. Now repeat it on the Africa-centred map. The voyage has not changed, but one representation divides the ocean at the paper’s edges. Ask students to distinguish a boundary chosen for printing from a geographic boundary in the sea.

Extend the question to the Atlantic on the Americas-centred sheet. Every flat map has a seam or perimeter. Where to put it is part of the mapmaker’s judgement.

Lesson 4: Is north really up?

Display the Austral Earth south-up map without introducing it. Let students say what they notice. Ask them to locate the equator and the poles, then point north on the page. What changed? What did not?

Turn a globe and repeat the exercise. For a practical check, rotate a local street or topographic map while keeping a compass reference. This teaches that a compass direction and a page position are related by orientation, not by natural necessity.

The lesson can end with a defence of north-up convention: common orientation makes maps quicker to exchange and read. Students should be able to understand its usefulness without mistaking it for a universal top.

Lesson 5: Choose a map for a question

Set out Equal Earth, a globe, a conventional political map, a physical world map and a local topographic sheet. Give groups five questions: Which continent has more area? What is the shortest long-distance path over Earth? Where are the major mountain belts? Which road reaches the campsite? What does the country’s current political border look like?

Ask students to choose a first source for each and justify it. They soon discover that no one map is the best answer to every geographic question. This is the essence of map literacy: not merely reading a legend, but choosing a suitable representation.

Lesson 6: Keep the projection fixed, change the story

Give each group one of the three north-up Equal Earth versions. Assign the same broad topic—migration, climate, trade, biodiversity or a historical period. Ask the group to plan a short explanation using only its assigned map. Then exchange maps. How does a different centre affect the order in which they tell the story? Which relationships become easier or harder to trace?

This is especially strong in a secondary classroom because the projection is held constant. Students can focus on the editorial consequences of centring rather than attributing every change to “distortion”.

Lesson 7: Build an exhibition label

Ask students to write a short museum-style label for each map. Require five items: projection, centre, orientation, what it preserves, and one classroom question it helps answer. Place their labels beside the maps in a library or corridor. The exercise makes the maps public educational objects rather than unnamed decoration.

Invite another class to read the labels and ask one question the exhibitors did not anticipate. That final exchange is often where the best geography begins.

What to Put Beside Equal Earth

I would not ask the Equal Earth set to carry an entire school geography program by itself. It is a world-scale political reference and a powerful way to compare area. Other resources complete the picture.

A globe makes the continuous sphere tangible. Rotate it to show that Earth has no intrinsic top and use it to discuss great-circle routes and day–night relationships. Place it where students can touch and turn it rather than locking it in a cabinet.

A map from our Australian Wall Maps collection adds national detail. Equal Earth makes Australia’s place in the world visible, but a world sheet cannot do justice to state boundaries, roads, rivers, ranges, regional centres and the immense distances within the country. A large Australia map and Pacific-centred Equal Earth make an excellent two-map foundation.

A physical world map brings landforms and ocean depth forward. A political Equal Earth map can show major physical features, but it cannot emphasise every layer equally. The wider World Wall Maps collection lets schools compare physical, political and other projection choices.

Gall–Peters remains a valuable historical and pedagogical comparison. Like Equal Earth, it is equal-area, but its rectangular form and strongly altered shapes make the tradeoff conspicuous. The Gall-Peters Equal Area World Map 1350 × 900 mm can provoke an excellent discussion beside Equal Earth. Students can ask why two equal-area projections look so different and why area accuracy is not the only design consideration.

For local fieldwork, move to a topographic map at an appropriate scale. For current weather, hazards, transport operations or recent satellite imagery, add an authoritative live digital source. The wall map provides lasting context; other sources answer specialised or changing questions.

The broader Educational Products collection is the right place to build that supporting set rather than buying several wall maps that all do the same job.

A School Purchase Plan That Makes Sense

If I were advising a school with no world map at all, I would ask three questions before quoting a product: How far is the back row from the wall? Which subject or year levels will use the map? Will it be written on or simply viewed?

From there, a practical sequence emerges.

The essentials: choose one Large laminated Pacific-centred Equal Earth map for the main classroom and one appropriate Australia wall map. This gives students a stable global and national reference. A globe is the next most useful addition if one is not already accessible.

The perspective pair: add the Africa-centred edition in a library, humanities room or adjacent wall bay. Keep the two maps similar in size and finish so differences in centring, not printing, dominate the comparison.

The whole-school set: add Americas-centred for Western Hemisphere studies and Austral Earth in a high-traffic inquiry space. Put short, readable interpretive labels beside them. Agree who will use the maps in which units and who will keep those labels current.

I would resist buying four Mega maps simply because a procurement budget allows it. Each needs the right wall. A deliberate mix of Large classroom maps and Standard comparison maps may serve students better. Likewise, do not choose canvas for a room whose teachers want to mark routes every week; the finish should reflect use, not only appearance.

Before issuing the purchase order, check current edition, dimensions, stock, finish, price, lead time and dispatch information on all four product pages. The editions are not currently identical. The 2025 Africa-centred page and 2026 listings for the other three should be treated as the catalogue’s current description, not as a promise that all future printings will carry those dates.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which Equal Earth map is best for Australian schools?

The Pacific-centred edition is the best general choice because it combines proportional area with a connected view of Australia, Asia and the Pacific. Specialist programs may choose another centre for a particular room.

Has the UN made Equal Earth compulsory for schools?

No. The 2026 UN General Assembly resolution encourages wider use of Equal Earth and other equal-area maps when relative size matters. It is non-binding, does not change the Australian curriculum and does not endorse Mapworld’s particular printed maps. Read our account of the UN decision for the context.

Does Equal Earth show everything accurately?

No flat map can. Equal Earth preserves relative area. It still changes shape, distance and direction to some degree. Choose another map when the lesson demands a different property.

Is Mercator now useless?

No. Mercator preserves local angles and has important navigational and digital-map uses. It is a less suitable default when the central classroom task is comparing the area of countries and continents. Teaching the distinction is more useful than banning one projection.

Should we buy Africa-centred or Americas-centred as the second map?

For most schools, I would choose Africa-centred because it offers a strong comparison with the Australian Pacific perspective and opens many global history and area lessons. A school with strong Spanish, Portuguese, American history or Western Hemisphere programs may get more daily value from Americas-centred.

Is the south-up map suitable for primary students?

Yes, as a companion to a north-up map. Young students can notice the change and learn that direction is not the same thing as page position. I would keep a familiar north-up reference available rather than making south-up the only world view.

What size should a normal classroom buy?

Large, approximately 1400 mm wide, is my default recommendation. Choose Standard for close viewing on a compact wall and Mega for a long room or shared space. Test the viewing distance and the actual wall before ordering.

Which finish works best for teaching?

Laminated is the usual practical choice for frequent handling and temporary annotation. Paper suits framing or careful mounting; canvas suits a permanent display where a write-on surface is unnecessary. Check marker compatibility and cleaning advice before classroom use.

Can we pair Equal Earth with an Australia wall map?

I strongly recommend it. Equal Earth answers world-scale questions; a map from our Australian Wall Maps collection gives states, roads, regions and national physical geography the space they need.

Should all four maps be mounted next to one another?

They can be, if the school has a large accessible wall and a clear interpretive plan. Spreading them among the geography room, library and corridor can introduce the subject across the school. Whichever arrangement you choose, let students compare at least two directly during lessons.

More Mapworld Reading for Teachers and School Buyers

If you want the news and projection history, begin with The UN Has Endorsed the Equal Earth Map. For a broader school map-buying plan—world, Australia and specialist maps together—read Classroom Maps Australia: The Best World and Australia Wall Maps for Schools.

These related guides develop individual parts of the decision:

• Mapworld and Schools looks at the wider range of maps and teaching resources.

• The Best Wall Maps for Schools and Classrooms compares the different roles of classroom wall maps.

• Why Every Geography Classroom Needs a Large Wall Map makes the case for a permanent shared geographic reference.

• How Maps Improve Spatial Thinking explores why repeated work with scale, rotation and spatial relationships matters.

• What Size Wall Map Do I Need? helps match the sheet to the wall and viewing distance.

• Paper vs Laminated vs Canvas Maps explains the surface and display tradeoffs.

For shopping, use World Wall Maps, Australian Wall Maps, Educational Products and Globes. The four Equal Earth product pages linked throughout this guide are the most direct route to their current options.

My Verdict

For most Australian schools, the answer is the Pacific-centred Equal Earth wall map. It gives teachers a usable world reference and gives students a view in which the relative area of places means what it seems to mean. It also puts Australia in the connected Pacific region where so many of our most important relationships lie.

The second map I would choose is Africa-centred Equal Earth. It offers the clearest paired lesson: the area has not changed, but the centre has. Add Americas-centred where the curriculum will use it, and put Austral Earth where it will be seen, questioned and talked about.

A good wall map does not complete a child’s education in geography. It keeps the world present long enough for that education to accumulate. If the map on the wall is going to be a student’s first persistent image of Earth, I think it is worth choosing one whose design we can explain—and whose limitations we can teach.

About the author

Christopher O’Keeffe is Managing Director of Mapworld. He has worked with maps and map production for more than 25 years, helping Australian schools, travellers, businesses and public organisations choose cartography for the questions they need to answer.

Editorial note

This article was prepared in Christopher O’Keeffe’s first-person editorial voice with AI assistance in drafting and visual composition. The four images are editorial visualisations based on the relevant Mapworld map artwork, not photographs of the supplied physical products. The product pages are the source for exact map design, edition, finish and current purchasing details.

Written by Christopher O’Keeffe
Managing Director of Mapworld and specialist in maps, navigation and cartographic products. 

AI transparency: This article was prepared under the authorship and editorial control of Christopher O’Keeffe using AI-assisted research, drafting or production tools. Its substantive content was reviewed and approved by the author. Mapworld retains editorial responsibility. Read our Content Policy.

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