Peters Projection, the type of cartographic representation on which the atlas is based, was introduced in 1973. It is a method of depicting the world on paper that accurately represents the surface of the globe while maintaining the relative proportions of three dimensions. In other words, countries with the same area are of equal size on a Peters map. All the maps in this atlas use the same scale for surface area, permitting direct comparison of the size of different regions without emphasizing some over others.