United Nations geoscheme

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. It was devised by the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) based on the M49 coding classification. 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".

The UNSD geoscheme was created for statistical analysis and consists of macro-geographical regions arranged to the extent possible according to continents. 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. This statistical definition also differs from United Nations Regional Groups.

Alternative groupings include the World Bank regional classification, CIA World Factbook regions and Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers Geographic Regions.

Maps

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

Northern Africa

Algeria
Egypt
Libya
Morocco
Sudan
Tunisia
Western Sahara

Sub-Saharan Africa

Eastern Africa

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

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

Southern Africa

Botswana
Eswatini
Lesotho
Namibia
South Africa

Western Africa

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

Latin America and the Caribbean

Caribbean

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

Central America

Belize
Costa Rica
El Salvador
Guatemala
Honduras
Mexico
Nicaragua
Panama

South America

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

Northern America

Bermuda
Canada
Greenland
Saint Pierre and Miquelon
United States

Asia

Central Asia

Kazakhstan
Kyrgyzstan
Tajikistan
Turkmenistan
Uzbekistan

Eastern Asia

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

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.
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.
Based on the United Nations statistical divisions, the APRICOT (conference) includes Taiwan in East Asia.
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.
Taiwan is also included in the UN Geoscheme of Eastern Asia in one systematic review on attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Note on Northern Asia

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

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

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

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

Eastern Europe

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

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

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

Western Europe

Austria
Belgium
France
Germany
Liechtenstein
Luxembourg
Monaco
Netherlands
Switzerland

Oceania

Australia and New Zealand

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

Melanesia

Fiji
New Caledonia
Papua New Guinea
Solomon Islands
Vanuatu

Micronesia

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

Polynesia

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