United Nations geoscheme

The definition of regions and subregions in use by the United Nations for statistical purposes.

The United Nations geoscheme is a scheme devised by the United Nations Statistics Division based on the M49 coding classification, which divides the world into macro-geographical regions and subregions.

The scheme was devised for statistical purposes and is used for carrying out statistical analysis. The macro-geographical regions are arranged to the extent possible according to continents. Within these groupings, smaller, geographical subregions and selected economic and other groupings allow for detailed analysis.

According to the United Nations, 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.

List of regions and subregions

• Africa – see also: UN geoscheme for Africa
  • Eastern Africa
  • Middle Africa
  • Northern Africa
  • Southern Africa
  • Western Africa
• Americas – see also: UN geoscheme for the Americas
  • Latin America and the Caribbean
    • Caribbean *
    • Central America *
    • South America
  • Northern America *

* These three subregions together form the continent of North America.

• Antarctica
  • Antarctica
• Eurasia
  • Asia – see also: UN geoscheme for Asia
    • Central Asia
    • Eastern Asia
    • Southern Asia
    • South-Eastern Asia
    • Western Asia
  • Europe – see also: UN geoscheme for Europe
    • Eastern Europe - UN includes North Asia (Siberia) in this subregion
    • Northern Europe
    • Southern Europe
    • Western Europe

• Oceania – see also: UN geoscheme for Oceania
  • Australia and New Zealand
  • Melanesia
  • Micronesia
  • Polynesia

See also

• Geopolitical divisions of Europe
• United Nations Regional Groups
• United Nations Statistics Division
• UN M.49