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World Regions Map

World regions are not internationally defined and depends on the sources. To give an appropriate view we will present the definition of the world regions used by the United Nation, the World Bank, the CIA World Factbook.

The United Nations Geoscheme

The United Nations Geoscheme is the system used by the United Nations for classifying the countries in regions and subregions. The United Nations Geoscheme was defined by the Standard Country or Area Codes for Statistical Use, commonly referred as the M49 standard, and it was defined by the Statistics Division of the United Nations Secretariat. The grouping of countries is not based on political or other affiliation, but only for statistical convenience.

Following the standard, each country is shown only in one region. The first level of division is based on continental regions. These first level of regions are further subdivided into sub-regions and intermediary regions. The main objective is to have subdivision to obtain greater homogeneity in sizes of population, demographic circumstances and accuracy of demographic statistics.

The divisions are the following:

• Africa
  • Northern Africa
  • Sub-Saharan Africa
    • Eastern Africa
    • Middle Africa
    • Southern Africa
    • Western Africa
  • Americas
    • Latin America and the Caribbean
      • Caribbean
      • Central America
      • South America
    • Northern America
  • Antarctica
  • Asia
    • Central Asia
    • Eastern Asia
    • South-eastern Asia
    • southern Asia
    • Western Asia
  • Europe
    • Eastern Europe
    • Northern Europe
      • Channel Islands
    • Southern Europe
    • Western Europe
  • Oceania
    • Australia and New Zealand
    • Melanesia
    • Micronesia
    • Polynesia

The World Bank regional classification

CIA World Factbook Regions