United Nations geoscheme
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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
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UN geoscheme for Africa <templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" /> <templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" /> <templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" /> <templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" /> <templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" />
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UN geoscheme for the Americas <templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" /> <templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" /> <templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" /> <templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" />
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UN geoscheme for Asia <templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" /> <templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" /> <templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" /> <templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" /> <templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" />
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UN geoscheme for Europe <templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" /> <templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" /> <templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" /> <templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" />
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UN geoscheme for Oceania <templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" /> <templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" /> <templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" /> <templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" />
Africa
Northern Africa
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Sub-Saharan Africa
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Eastern Africa
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- File:Flag of the Commissioner of the British Indian Ocean Territory.svg British Indian Ocean Territory
- File:Flag of Burundi.svg Burundi
- File:Flag of the Comoros.svg Comoros
- File:Flag of Djibouti.svg Djibouti
- File:Flag of Eritrea.svg Eritrea
- File:Flag of Ethiopia.svg Ethiopia
- File:Flag of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands.svg French Southern Territories
- File:Flag of Kenya.svg Kenya
- File:Flag of Madagascar.svg Madagascar
- File:Flag of Malawi.svg Malawi
- File:Flag of Mauritius.svg Mauritius
- File:Flag of Mayotte (Local).svg Mayotte
- File:Flag of Mozambique.svg Mozambique
- File:Proposed flag of Réunion (VAR).svg Réunion
- File:Flag of Rwanda.svg Rwanda
- File:Flag of Seychelles.svg Seychelles
- File:Flag of Somalia.svg Somalia
- File:Flag of South Sudan.svg South Sudan
- File:Flag of Uganda.svg Uganda
- File:Flag of Tanzania.svg United Republic of Tanzania
- File:Flag of Zambia.svg Zambia
- File:Flag of Zimbabwe.svg Zimbabwe
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Middle Africa
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- File:Flag of Angola.svg Angola
- File:Flag of Cameroon.svg Cameroon
- File:Flag of the Central African Republic.svg Central African Republic
- File:Flag of Chad.svg Chad
- File:Flag of the Republic of the Congo.svg Congo
- File:Flag of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.svg Democratic Republic of the Congo
- File:Flag of Equatorial Guinea.svg Equatorial Guinea
- File:Flag of Gabon.svg Gabon
- File:Flag of São Tomé and Príncipe.svg Sao Tome and Principe
Southern Africa
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Western Africa
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- File:Flag of Benin.svg Benin
- File:Flag of Burkina Faso.svg Burkina Faso
- Template:Country data Cabo Verde
- Template:Country data Côte d'Ivoire
- File:Flag of The Gambia.svg Gambia
- File:Flag of Ghana.svg Ghana
- File:Flag of Guinea.svg Guinea
- File:Flag of Guinea-Bissau.svg Guinea-Bissau
- File:Flag of Liberia.svg Liberia
- File:Flag of Mali.svg Mali
- File:Flag of Mauritania.svg Mauritania
- File:Flag of Niger.svg Niger
- File:Flag of Nigeria.svg Nigeria
- Template:Country data Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha
- File:Flag of Senegal.svg Senegal
- File:Flag of Sierra Leone.svg Sierra Leone
- File:Flag of Togo (3-2).svg Togo
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Americas
Latin America and the Caribbean
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Caribbean
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- File:Flag of Anguilla.svg AnguillaTemplate:Efn
- File:Flag of Antigua and Barbuda.svg Antigua and Barbuda
- File:Flag of Aruba.svg ArubaTemplate:Efn
- File:Flag of the Bahamas.svg Bahamas
- File:Flag of Barbados.svg Barbados
- Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and SabaTemplate:Efn
- File:Flag of the British Virgin Islands.svg British Virgin IslandsTemplate:Efn
- File:Flag of the Cayman Islands.svg Cayman IslandsTemplate:Efn
- File:Flag of Cuba.svg Cuba
- File:Flag of Curaçao.svg CuraçaoTemplate:Efn
- File:Flag of Dominica.svg Dominica
- File:Flag of the Dominican Republic.svg Dominican Republic
- File:Flag of Grenada.svg Grenada
- File:Flag of Guadeloupe (local).svg GuadeloupeTemplate:Efn
- File:Flag of Haiti.svg Haiti
- File:Flag of Jamaica.svg Jamaica
- File:Flag-of-Martinique.svg MartiniqueTemplate:Efn
- File:Flag of Montserrat.svg MontserratTemplate:Efn
- File:Flag of Puerto Rico.svg Puerto RicoTemplate:Efn
- File:Flag of Saint Barthélemy (Local).svg Saint BarthélemyTemplate:Efn
- File:Flag of Saint Kitts and Nevis.svg Saint Kitts and Nevis
- File:Flag of Saint Lucia.svg Saint Lucia
- File:Local flag of the Collectivity of Saint Martin.svg Saint Martin (French part)Template:Efn
- File:Flag of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.svg Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
- File:Flag of Sint Maarten.svg Sint Maarten (Dutch part)Template:Efn
- File:Flag of Trinidad and Tobago.svg Trinidad and Tobago
- File:Flag of the Turks and Caicos Islands.svg Turks and Caicos IslandsTemplate:Efn
- File:Flag of the United States Virgin Islands.svg United States Virgin IslandsTemplate:Efn
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Central America
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South America
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- File:Flag of Argentina.svg Argentina
- File:Flag of Bolivia.svg Bolivia (Plurinational State of)
- Template:Country data Bouvet IslandTemplate:Efn
- File:Flag of Brazil.svg Brazil
- File:Flag of Chile.svg Chile
- File:Flag of Colombia.svg Colombia
- File:Flag of Ecuador.svg Ecuador
- File:Flag of the Falkland Islands.svg Falkland IslandsTemplate:Efn
- File:Flag of French Guiana.svg French GuianaTemplate:Efn
- File:Flag of Guyana.svg Guyana
- File:Flag of Paraguay.svg Paraguay
- File:Flag of Peru.svg Peru
- File:Flag of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands.svg South Georgia and the South Sandwich IslandsTemplate:Efn
- File:Flag of Suriname.svg Suriname
- File:Flag of Uruguay.svg Uruguay
- File:Flag of Venezuela.svg Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of)
Northern America
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Asia
Central Asia
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Eastern Asia
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- File:Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg China
- File:Flag of Hong Kong.svg China, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region
- File:Flag of Macau.svg China, Macao Special Administrative Region
- Template:Flagdeco Democratic People's Republic of Korea
- File:Flag of Japan.svg Japan
- File:Flag of Mongolia.svg Mongolia
- Template:Flagdeco Republic of Korea
Note on Taiwan
Several institutions and research papers using classification schemes based on the UN geoscheme include Taiwan separately in their divisions of Eastern Asia.
- The Unicode CLDR's "Territory Containment (UN M.49)" includes Taiwan in its presentation of the UN M.49.[9]
- The public domain map data set Natural Earth has metadata in the fields named "region_un" and "subregion" for Taiwan.
- The regional split recommended by Lloyd's of London for Eastern Asia (UN statistical divisions of Eastern Asia) contains Taiwan.[10]
- Based on the United Nations statistical divisions, the APRICOT (conference) includes Taiwan in East Asia.[11]
- 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]
- Taiwan is also included in the UN Geoscheme of Eastern Asia in one systematic review on attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.[13]
Northern Asia
This 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
This subregion covers the geographical regions of Indochinese Peninsula and Malay Archipelago, covering the following geopolitical entities as a whole:
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- File:Flag of Brunei.svg Brunei Darussalam
- File:Flag of Cambodia.svg Cambodia
- File:Flag of Indonesia.svg Indonesia
- File:Flag of Laos.svg Lao People's Democratic Republic
- File:Flag of Malaysia.svg Malaysia
- File:Flag of Myanmar.svg Myanmar
- File:Flag of the Philippines.svg Philippines
- File:Flag of Singapore.svg Singapore
- File:Flag of Thailand.svg Thailand
- File:Flag of East Timor.svg Timor-Leste
- Template:Not a typo
Southern Asia
This subregion covers the geographical regions spanning from the Iranian Plateau till the Indian subcontinent, covering the following geopolitical entities as a whole:
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- Template:Country data Islamic Republic of Afghanistan
- File:Flag of Bangladesh.svg Bangladesh
- File:Flag of Bhutan.svg Bhutan
- File:Flag of India.svg India
- File:Flag of Iran.svg Iran (Islamic Republic of)
- File:Flag of Maldives.svg Maldives
- File:Flag of Nepal.svg Nepal
- File:Flag of Pakistan.svg Pakistan
- File:Flag of Sri Lanka.svg Sri Lanka
Western Asia
This subregion covers the geographical regions spanning from Anatolia, Caucasus, Levant, Mesopotamia till the Arabian Peninsula, covering the following geopolitical entities as a whole:
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- File:Flag of Armenia.svg Armenia
- File:Flag of Azerbaijan.svg Azerbaijan
- File:Flag of Bahrain.svg Bahrain
- File:Flag of Cyprus.svg Cyprus
- File:Flag of Georgia.svg Georgia
- File:Flag of Iraq.svg Iraq
- File:Flag of Israel.svg Israel
- File:Flag of Jordan.svg Jordan
- File:Flag of Kuwait.svg Kuwait
- File:Flag of Lebanon.svg Lebanon
- File:Flag of Oman.svg Oman
- File:Flag of Qatar.svg Qatar
- File:Flag of Saudi Arabia.svg Saudi Arabia
- Template:Country data State of Palestine
- File:Flag of the Syrian revolution.svg Syrian Arab Republic
- File:Flag of Turkey.svg Turkey
- File:Flag of the United Arab Emirates.svg United Arab Emirates
- File:Flag of Yemen.svg Yemen
Europe
Eastern Europe
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† Although Russia is a transcontinental country covering Northern Asia as well, for statistical convenience, Russia is assigned under Eastern Europe by UNSD, including both European Russia and Siberian Russia under a single subregion.
Northern Europe
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Southern Europe
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Western Europe
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Oceania
Australia and New Zealand
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- AustraliaScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". Australia
- New ZealandScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". New Zealand
- Template:Country data NFITemplate:Namespace detect showallScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". Norfolk Island
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Melanesia
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- FijiScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". Fiji
- Template:Country data CALTemplate:Namespace detect showallScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". New Caledonia
- Papua New GuineaScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". Papua New Guinea
- Solomon IslandsScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". Solomon Islands
- VanuatuScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". Vanuatu
Micronesia
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- GuamScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". Guam
- KiribatiScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". Kiribati
- Marshall IslandsScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". Marshall Islands
- Federated States of MicronesiaScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". Micronesia (Federated States of)
- NauruScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". Nauru
- Template:Country data NMITemplate:Namespace detect showallScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". Northern Mariana Islands
- PalauScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". Palau
Polynesia
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- American SamoaScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". American Samoa
- Cook IslandsScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". Cook Islands
- French PolynesiaScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". French Polynesia
- NiueScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". Niue
- Pitcairn IslandsScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". Pitcairn
- SamoaScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". Samoa
- Template:Country data TOKTemplate:Namespace detect showallScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". Tokelau
- TongaScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". Tonga
- TuvaluScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". Tuvalu
- Wallis and FutunaScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". Wallis and Futuna Islands
See also
- 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
References
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- ↑ UNSD: Standard country or area codes for statistical use (M49) – Recent changes – Footnote 13
- ↑ a b c Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ United Nations Industrial Organisation p. 14
- ↑ UNESCO, Europe and North America, Retrieved: 10 May 2016
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ ICANN Geographic Regions
- ↑ ICANN Geographical Regions, Final Report by the ccNSO Regions Working Group, For Submission to the ICANN Board, 24 September 2007
- ↑ "World Bank Country and Lending Groups", the World Bank
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
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- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".
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