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 AreaSeveral 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] 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 SiberiaThis 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 PlateauThis 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 AfricaThis 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 Scandinia 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] ^ a b c d e f g h British Overseas Territory ^ a b c Part of the Dutch Caribbean and a constituent country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands ^ A part of the Dutch Caribbean and a public body within the Kingdom of the Netherlands. ^ a b c An overseas department and region of France. ^ A commonwealth and unincorporated territory of the United States. ^ a b c An overseas collectivity of France. ^ An unincorporated and organized territory of the United States ^ A dependency of Norway ^ A constituent country within the Danish Realm References[edit] ^ UNSD: Standard country or area codes for statistical use (M49) – Recent changes – Footnote 13 ^ a b c "UNSD — Methodology". United Nations Statistics Division. Retrieved 2019-06-17. ^ United Nations Industrial Organisation p. 14 ^ UNESCO, Europe and North America, Retrieved: 10 May 2016 ^ 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 ^ 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 ^ "Territory Containment (UN M.49)". www.unicode.org. Unicode Consortium. Retrieved 25 August 2025. ^ "Geographical diversification and Solvency II: A proposal by Lloyd's". ^ "Countries in APRICOT's Region". Archived from the original on 2014-04-13. Retrieved 2025-03-19. ^ Website Usability in Asia 'from Within': An Overview of a Decade of Literature Archived 2014-04-13 at the Wayback Machine International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, vol. 29, issue 4 (2013), pp. 256–273. ^ 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.