• Highlights

• The new map is part of a series launched with Brazil at the center of the world (2024) and with the traditional North-South orientation reversed (2025).
• At an event held today (04/05) at Itamaraty, in Brasília, which kicks off the celebrations of its 90th anniversary, the IBGE is launching two publications and the new world map.

The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) kicks off its 90th anniversary celebrations with a special event that will bring together more than 20 diplomatic representations and international organizations, as well as public and private managers, today, May 4, 2026, in Brasília.

The ceremony held in the Itamaraty Palace, with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Relations, will feature the release of the publications “Brasil em Números/Brazil in Figures – 2025” and “IBGE pelo Mundo” (IBGE around the world), as well as the new world map, which shows the species richness and the representation of the continents in real proportions.

The president of the IBGE, Marcio Pochmann, highlighted: “At the age of 90, the IBGE transforms cartography into a political and civil statement, as it places Brazil in the middle of the globe and inverts the North-South axis, portraying the continents in real proportions. As a result, the new world map defies centuries of Eurocentric view and repositions the Global South in the center of the debate on biodiversity, power and the planet’s future.”

The IBGE head of the Directorate of Geosciences, Maria do Carmo, praised the map release during the Institute’s 90th anniversary celebrations. “This shows how the environment and cartography fields are important and always contribute to the fulfillment of our mission: to provide knowledge of reality for the exercise of citizenship.”

Opening panel

The opening panel will feature Mauro Vieira, minister of Foreign Relations of Brazil; Bruno Moretti, minister of Planning and Budget; Marcio Pochmann, president of the IBGE; Maria Luisa Ribeiro Lopes, deputy director of the Brazilian Agency of Cooperation; and Claudio Providas, resident representative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Brazil.

The initiative inaugurates the celebration calendar of the nine decades of the Institute, with the disclosure of the first special works, which highlight both the national statistical production and the international engagement of the IBGE.

New Publications and Detailed Maps

1 – Species Richness Map 2025

On May 22, we celebrate the International Day for Biological Diversity. This date, established by the United Nations, pays tribute to the approved final text of the Convention on Biological Diversity, on May 22, 1992. The theme of the 2026 issue is “Acting locally for global impact”, encouraging community action and local initiatives, such as selective waste collection and conscious consumption, which generate global positive impacts.

The date also reinforces that biodiversity protection plays an essential role in the climate, in health and food, and seeks to make us aware of the importance of fauna, flora and ecosystems for a healthy, balanced quality of life for human beings. The day is an opportunity to rethink the impact that we have on the planet as humans and start adopting more sustainable attitudes.

To mark this date, the IBGE releases the world map “Species Richness 2025”, which brings information on biodiversity around the world, by means of the species richness indicator, measuring the potential quantity of species of amphibians, birds, mammals, reptiles, crustaceans and fresh water fishes within each 100 km² grid.

In terms of cartographic representation, the map brings Bazil in the center, as a way of highlighting its importance in the current social and political scenario; it presents the traditional North-South convention inverted, as a reminder of the several ways of visualizing the world; and includes the Equal Earth cartographic projection novelty.

2 – Continent in real proportions

The Equal Earth projection is a modern pattern following the Earth curvature and representing the continents in real proportions.

It was created in 2018 by Bojan Šavrič, Tom Patterson and Bernhard Jenny with the main purpose of offering a distortion-free world map, capable of keeping the equivalence of the landmass areas, i. e., visually more pleasing and realistic.

In addition, this projection seeks to offer a more just and decolonized view of the world, correcting the Eurocentric bias of the traditional maps and serving as an educational tool and a more balanced instrument of representation.

The Mercator projection, the most commonly used, was created in the 16^th century by the Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator. Its aim was to help European navigators, allowing for the tracing of straight-line routs in flat maps, keeping a constant compass angle, in order to facilitate long-distance travels. However, such a projection distorts continental masses, expanding the regions next to the poles – as North America and Greenland – and reducing Africa and South America.

In the Mercator projection, Greenland and Africa seem to have nearly the same size. Whereas in the Equal Earth projection, which presents the continents in their real proportions, it would be possible to fit 14 Greenlands inside the African continent.

3 – IBGE pelo Mundo/IBGE Around the World

The Publication IBGE pelo Mundo (IBGE Around the World) aims at portraying the international engagement of the Institute by means of its main activities carried out in 2025.

In this issue, attention should be drawn to the Pro Tempore Presidency of Brazil in Brics and in Mercosur, which gave the IBGE the opportunity to chair the Heads of BRICS National Statistical Offices and the Mercosur Specialized Meeting on Statistics.

On both positions, the Institute was very active, approving proposals on the creation of a Secretariat and of several Work Groups, with the view of improving work processes and methods for statistical and geoscientific data and information production.

A highlight should be given to the organization of the International Triple Forum of Global South Governance, which gathered, in Fortaleza, Ceará, 4,800 people physically and reached 35,659 virtually on several Internet channels, including representatives of NSOs from BRICS, Mercosur and Portuguese-Speaking Countries (CPLP), with which the IBGE maintains active collaboration.

The volume is edited in three languages – Portuguese, Spanish and English – with the aim of expanding the access to its content and facilitating its dissemination in the partner-countries.

4 – Brasil em Números: a arte de retratar o Brasil/ Brazil in Figures: the art of portraying Brazil

Brazil in Numbers, another IBGE publication, is a bilingual pocketbook that brings together a synthesis of Brazilian reality in its multiple aspects. With its compact format, the publication seeks to offer enjoyable and instructive reading.

As a source of information, the data from surveys conducted by the IBGE stand out. As a complement, data produced by the Central Bank of Brazil, regulatory agencies, federal ministries, and some of their affiliated institutions are also used.

With tables and graphs, the articles present data about the country, including comparative information between the Brazilian states. In addition, this year, the work is enriched with articles by professionals from the IBGE itself, on different topics, except for the topic of the Judiciary, written by the National Council of Justice (CNJ), as part of the commemorative events for the 90th anniversary of the IBGE.

For the first time, the articles were written by specialists from the Institute itself, and the illustrations are drawn upon the institutional collection.

Service: Release of the pubications “Brasil em Números – 2025/Brazil in Figures – 2025” and “IBGE pelo Mundo/IBGE around the World" in Brasília

Date: May 4, 2026
Time: 3 pm (Brasilia time) | Accreditation: 2 pm
Venue: Itamaraty Palace - Wladimir Murtinho Auditorium, Basement - Brasília - DF
Online broadcast: YouTube, Instagram, Tik Tok and Facebook

To purchase products, maps, and publications at the IBGE Store, visit the official website loja.ibge.gov.br or in person at the physical store in Rio de Janeiro (Palácio da Fazenda, Av. Pres. Antônio Carlos, 375, Centro, Rio de Janeiro). Additional information can be obtained by calling the Customer Service Center at 0800 721 8181 or by email at lojavirtual@ibge.gov.br.