United Nations geoscheme

UN system for grouping the world's 248 countries and territories into regions and subregions

Not to be confused with United Nations Regional Groups.

Further information: List of countries and territories by the United Nations geoscheme

22 geographical subregions as defined by the UNSD. Antarctica is not shown.

The United Nations geoscheme is a system that divides 248 countries and territories in the world into six continental regions, 22 geographical subregions, and two intermediary regions.[1] It was devised by the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) based on the M49 coding classification.[2] The creators note that "the assignment of countries or areas to specific groupings is for statistical convenience and does not imply any assumption regarding political or other affiliation of countries or territories".[2]

The UNSD geoscheme was created for statistical analysis and consists of macro-geographical regions arranged to the extent possible according to continents.[2] Within each region, smaller geographical subregions and sometimes intermediary regions contain countries and territories. Countries and territories are also grouped non-geographically into selected economic and other sets, such as the landlocked developing countries, the least developed countries, and the Small Island Developing States.

Antarctica does not comprise any geographical subregions or country-level areas.

The UNSD geoscheme does not set a standard for the entire United Nations System, and it often differs from geographical definitions used by the autonomous United Nations specialized agencies for their own organizational convenience. For instance, the UNSD includes Cyprus and Georgia in Western Asia, yet the United Nations Industrial Development Organization and UNESCO include them in Europe.[3][4] This statistical definition also differs from United Nations Regional Groups.

Alternative groupings include the World Bank regional classification,[5] CIA World Factbook regions and Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers Geographic Regions.[6][7][8]

## Maps

[edit]

* UN geoscheme for Africa

Eastern Africa

Middle Africa

Northern Africa

Southern Africa

Western Africa

* UN geoscheme for the Americas

Caribbean

Central America

Northern America

South America

* UN geoscheme for Asia

Central Asia

Eastern Asia

South-eastern Asia

Southern Asia

Western Asia

* UN geoscheme for Europe

Eastern Europe

Northern Europe

Southern Europe

Western Europe

* UN geoscheme for Oceania

Australia and New Zealand

Melanesia

Micronesia

Polynesia

## Africa

[edit]

Main article: Africa

Further information: List of regions of Africa

See also: Regions of the African Union

### Northern Africa

[edit]

Main article: North Africa

Further information: Macaronesia, Maghreb, and Mashriq

See also: Greater Middle East and Middle East and North Africa

* Algeria
* Egypt
* Libya
* Morocco
* Sudan
* Tunisia
* Western Sahara

### Sub-Saharan Africa

[edit]

Main article: Sub-Saharan Africa

#### Eastern Africa

[edit]

Main article: East Africa

Further information: Horn of Africa

See also: Comoro Islands and Mascarene Islands

* British Indian Ocean Territory
* Burundi
* Comoros
* Djibouti
* Eritrea
* Ethiopia
* French Southern Territories
* Kenya
* Madagascar
* Malawi
* Mauritius
* Mayotte
* Mozambique
* Réunion
* Rwanda
* Seychelles
* Somalia
* South Sudan
* Uganda
* United Republic of Tanzania
* Zambia
* Zimbabwe

#### Middle Africa

[edit]

Main article: Central Africa

Further information: Cameroon line

* Angola
* Cameroon
* Central African Republic
* Chad
* Congo
* Democratic Republic of the Congo
* Equatorial Guinea
* Gabon
* Sao Tome and Principe

#### Southern Africa

[edit]

Main article: Southern Africa

* Botswana
* Eswatini
* Lesotho
* Namibia
* South Africa

#### Western Africa

[edit]

Main article: West Africa

Further information: Macaronesia

* Benin
* Burkina Faso
* Cabo Verde
* Côte d'Ivoire
* Gambia
* Ghana
* Guinea
* Guinea-Bissau
* Liberia
* Mali
* Mauritania
* Niger
* Nigeria
* Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha
* Saint Helena
* Ascension Island
* Tristan da Cunha
* Senegal
* Sierra Leone
* Togo

## Americas

[edit]

Main article: Americas

### Latin America and the Caribbean

[edit]

Main article: Latin America and the Caribbean

Further information: Latin America

See also: List of regions of Latin America

#### Caribbean

[edit]

Main articles: Caribbean and West Indies

Further information: Antilles, Greater Antilles, Lesser Antilles, and Lucayan Archipelago

See also: Leeward Antilles, Leeward Islands, and Windward Islands

* Anguilla[a]
* Antigua and Barbuda
* Aruba[b]
* Bahamas
* Barbados
* Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba[c]
* Bonaire
* Sint Eustatius
* Saba
* British Virgin Islands[a]
* Cayman Islands[a]
* Cuba
* Curaçao[b]
* Dominica
* Dominican Republic
* Grenada
* Guadeloupe[d]
* Haiti
* Jamaica
* Martinique[d]
* Montserrat[a]
* Puerto Rico[e]
* Saint Barthélemy[f]
* Saint Kitts and Nevis
* Saint Lucia
* Saint Martin (French part)[f]
* Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
* Sint Maarten (Dutch part)[b]
* Trinidad and Tobago
* Turks and Caicos Islands[a]
* United States Virgin Islands[g]

#### Central America

[edit]

Main article: Central America

Further information: Middle America (Americas)

* Belize
* Costa Rica
* El Salvador
* Guatemala
* Honduras
* Mexico
* Nicaragua
* Panama

#### South America

[edit]

Main article: South America

Further information: Caribbean South America, Southern Cone, and The Guianas

* Argentina
* Bolivia (Plurinational State of)
* Bouvet Island[h]
* Brazil
* Chile
* Colombia
* Ecuador
* Falkland Islands[a]
* French Guiana[d]
* Guyana
* Paraguay
* Peru
* South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands[a]
* Suriname
* Uruguay
* Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of)

### Northern America

[edit]

Main article: Northern America

Further information: Anglo-America

See also: Western world

* Bermuda[a]
* Canada
* Greenland[i]
* Saint Pierre and Miquelon[f]
* United States

## Asia

[edit]

Main article: Asia

Further information: Far East

### Central Asia

[edit]

Main article: Central Asia

Further information: Inner Asia

* Kazakhstan
* Kyrgyzstan
* Tajikistan
* Turkmenistan
* Uzbekistan

### Eastern Asia

[edit]

Main article: East Asia

Further information: Far East and Northeast Asia

See also: Greater China, Japanese Archipelago, Korea, and Mongol heartland

* China
* China, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region
* China, Macao Special Administrative Region
* Korea, Democratic People's Republic of (North Korea)
* Japan
* Mongolia
* Korea, Republic of (South Korea)

#### Note on Taiwan

[edit]

Main article: Political status of Taiwan

Further information: Cross-strait relations

See also: Taiwan Area

Several institutions and research papers using classification schemes based on the UN geoscheme include Taiwan separately in their divisions of Eastern Asia.

1. The Unicode CLDR's "Territory Containment (UN M.49)" includes Taiwan in its presentation of the UN M.49.[9]
2. The public domain map data set Natural Earth has metadata in the fields named "region_un" and "subregion" for Taiwan.
3. The regional split recommended by Lloyd's of London for Eastern Asia (UN statistical divisions of Eastern Asia) contains Taiwan.[10]
4. Based on the United Nations statistical divisions, the APRICOT (conference) includes Taiwan in East Asia.[11]
5. Studying Website Usability in Asia, Ather Nawaz and Torkil Clemmensen select Asian countries on the basis of United Nations statistical divisions, and Taiwan is also included.[12]
6. Taiwan is also included in the UN Geoscheme of Eastern Asia in one systematic review on attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.[13]

### Note on Northern Asia

[edit]

Main article: North Asia

Further information: Siberia and Russian Far East

See also: Far North (Russia) and Russian conquest of Siberia

This unofficial subregion covers the entire geographical region of Siberia. Since this region as a whole falls under the transcontinental country of Russia, for statistical convenience, Russia is assigned under Eastern Europe by the UNSD, including both European Russia and Asian Russia under a single subregion. Hence, there is no geopolitical entity that is currently grouped under Northern Asia.

### South-eastern Asia

[edit]

Main article: Southeast Asia

Further information: Far East, Mainland Southeast Asia, and Maritime Southeast Asia

See also: Malay Archipelago and Nanyang (region)

This subregion covers the geographical regions of Mainland Southeast Asia and Maritime Southeast Asia, covering the following geopolitical entities as a whole:

* Brunei Darussalam
* Cambodia
* Indonesia
* Lao People's Democratic Republic
* Malaysia
* Myanmar
* Philippines
* Singapore
* Thailand
* Timor-Leste
* Viet Nam

### Southern Asia

[edit]

Main article: South Asia

Further information: Indian subcontinent and Iranian Plateau

This subregion covers the geographical regions spanning over the Indian subcontinent and the Iranian Plateau, covering the following geopolitical entities as a whole:

* Afghanistan
* Bangladesh
* Bhutan
* India
* Iran (Islamic Republic of)
* Maldives
*   Nepal
* Pakistan
* Sri Lanka

### Western Asia

[edit]

Main article: West Asia

Further information: Middle East, Near East, Palestine (region), and Syria (region)

See also: Greater Middle East and Middle East and North Africa

This subregion covers the geographical regions spanning over Anatolia, Arabia, the Levant, Mesopotamia, and the South Caucasus, covering the following geopolitical entities as a whole:

* Armenia
* Azerbaijan
* Bahrain
* Cyprus
* Georgia
* Iraq
* Israel
* Jordan
* Kuwait
* Lebanon
* Oman
* Qatar
* Saudi Arabia
* State of Palestine
* Syrian Arab Republic
* Turkey
* United Arab Emirates
* Yemen

## Europe

[edit]

Main article: Europe

Further information: Regions of Europe

See also: Central Europe and Old Europe and New Europe

### Eastern Europe

[edit]

Main article: Eastern Europe

Further information: Central and Eastern Europe and East-Central Europe

See also: North Asia

* Belarus
* Bulgaria
* Czechia
* Hungary
* Poland
* Republic of Moldova
* Romania
* Russian Federation†
* Slovakia
* Ukraine

† Although Russia is a transcontinental country covering Northern Asia as well, for statistical convenience, Russia is assigned under Eastern Europe by the UNSD, including both European Russia and Asian Russia under a single subregion.

### Northern Europe

[edit]

Main article: Northern Europe

Further information: Baltic region, Fennoscandia, and Northwestern Europe

See also: Nordic countries and Scandinavia

* Åland Islands
* Denmark
* Estonia
* Faroe Islands
* Finland
* Iceland
* Ireland
* Isle of Man
* Latvia
* Lithuania
* Norway
* Svalbard and Jan Mayen Islands
* Sweden
* United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

### Southern Europe

[edit]

Main article: Southern Europe

Further information: Iberian Peninsula, Italy (geographical region), and Southeast Europe

* Albania
* Andorra
* Bosnia and Herzegovina
* Croatia
* Gibraltar
* Greece
* Holy See
* Italy
* Malta
* Montenegro
* North Macedonia
* Portugal
* San Marino
* Serbia
* Slovenia
* Spain

### Western Europe

[edit]

Main article: Western Europe

See also: Western world

* Austria
* Belgium
* France
* Germany
* Liechtenstein
* Luxembourg
* Monaco
* Netherlands
*  Switzerland

## Oceania

[edit]

Main article: Oceania

Further information: Near Oceania and Remote Oceania

### Australia and New Zealand

[edit]

Main article: Australasia

Further information: Down Under

See also: Western world

* Australia
* Christmas Island
* Cocos (Keeling) Islands
* Heard Island and McDonald Islands
* New Zealand
* Norfolk Island

### Melanesia

[edit]

Main article: Melanesia

Further information: Island Melanesia

See also: East Melanesian Islands

* Fiji
* New Caledonia
* Papua New Guinea
* Solomon Islands
* Vanuatu

### Micronesia

[edit]

Main article: Micronesia

Further information: Caroline Islands and Mariana Islands

* Guam
* Kiribati
* Marshall Islands
* Micronesia (Federated States of)
* Nauru
* Northern Mariana Islands
* Palau

### Polynesia

[edit]

Main article: Polynesia

Further information: Polynesian outlier and Polynesian Triangle

See also: Hawaiian Islands and Samoan Islands

* American Samoa
* Cook Islands
* French Polynesia
* Niue
* Pitcairn
* Samoa
* Tokelau
* Tonga
* Tuvalu
* Wallis and Futuna Islands

## See also

[edit]

* List of countries and territories by the United Nations geoscheme
* List of continents and continental subregions by population
* List of regions of Africa
* Regions of the African Union
* Regions of Europe
* List of regions of Latin America

## Notes

[edit]

1. ^ a b c d e f g h British Overseas Territory
2. ^ a b c Part of the Dutch Caribbean and a constituent country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands
3. ^ A part of the Dutch Caribbean and a public body within the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
4. ^ a b c An overseas department and region of France.
5. ^ A commonwealth and unincorporated territory of the United States.
6. ^ a b c An overseas collectivity of France.
7. ^ An unincorporated and organized territory of the United States
8. ^ A dependency of Norway
9. ^ A constituent country within the Danish Realm

## References

[edit]

1. ^ UNSD: Standard country or area codes for statistical use (M49) – Recent changes – Footnote 13
2. ^ a b c "UNSD — Methodology". United Nations Statistics Division. Retrieved 2019-06-17.
3. ^ United Nations Industrial Organisation p. 14
4. ^ UNESCO, Europe and North America, Retrieved: 10 May 2016
5. ^ Katrin Elborgh-Woytek; Monique Newiak; Kalpana Kochhar; Stefania Fabrizio; Kangni Kpodar; Philippe Wingender; Benedict J. Clements; Gerd Schwartz (20 September 2013). Women, Work, and the Economy:Macroeconomic Gains from Gender Equity. International Monetary Fund. p. 7\. ISBN 978-1-4843-9529-5. "Country groups are based on UN geoscheme and World Bank regional classification"
6. ^ ICANN Geographic Regions
7. ^ ICANN Geographical Regions, Final Report by the ccNSO Regions Working Group, For Submission to the ICANN Board, 24 September 2007
8. ^ "World Bank Country and Lending Groups", the World Bank
9. ^ "Territory Containment (UN M.49)". unicode-org.github.io.
10. ^ "Geographical diversification and Solvency II: A proposal by Lloyd's".
11. ^ "Countries in APRICOT's Region".
12. ^ Website Usability in Asia 'from Within': An Overview of a Decade of Literature International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, vol. 29, issue 4 (2013), pp. 256–273.
13. ^ Hodgkins, Paul; Arnold, L. Eugene; Shaw, Monica; Caci, Hervé; Kahle, Jennifer; Woods, Alisa G; Young, Susan (2012). "A Systematic Review of Global Publication Trends Regarding Long-Term Outcomes of ADHD". Frontiers in Psychiatry. 2: 84. doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2011.00084. ISSN 1664-0640. PMC 3260478. PMID 22279437.