An equivalent or equal-area projection stores locally the areas of objects, but not the shapes or angles. The meridians take the form of ellipses and obliquely intersecting parallels. An example of equal-area projection is the Peters projection, which has been promoted politically as a replacement for the Mercator projection. The Mercator has been critiqued as biased against developing countries as it underestimates their sizes, and thus their importance. Equivalent projections are preferred in the statistical maps and planning.

See: Coordinates (system of), Conformal (Projection), GIS Software
[French: Equivalente (Projection)]