Regions of Europe

This article is about groups of countries. For sub-national regions, see Region (Europe).

Europe is often divided into regions due to geographical, cultural or historical criteria. Some common divisions are as follows.

Directional divisions

Groupings by compass directions are the hardest to define in Europe, since (among other issues) the pure geographical criteria of "east" and "west" are often confused with the political meaning these words acquired during the Cold War Era.

• Central Europe
• Eastern Europe
• Northern Europe
• Southern Europe
• Western Europe

The geographic scheme in use by the United Nations includes all of the above subregions, save Central Europe.

There are also physical geographic regions such as the central up-lands and the European plain

Historical divisions

Europe can be divided along many differing historical lines, normally corresponding to those parts that were inside or outside a particular cultural phenomenon, empire or political division. The areas varied at different times, and so it is arguable as to which areas fell into certain areas (e.g. are Germany or Britain to be considered Roman Europe as they were only part of the Empire for a brief period, or are the countries of the former communist Yugoslavia to be considered part of Eastern Europe since it was not in the Warsaw Pact ).

• Roman and Non-Roman Europe: those parts that were inside the Roman Empire.
• Greek Europe and Latin Europe: those parts that fell into the eastern (Byzantine) and western Roman Empires.
• Christendom and Pagan Europe: those lands that did and did not observe Christianity in the Middle Ages.
• Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christian Europe: those parts on either side of the Great Schism.
• Protestant and Catholic Europe: those parts that, in the main, left the Catholic Church during the Reformation contrasted with those that did not.
• Civil Code and Common Law Europe: Those parts that adopted a Napoleonic Code style system and those that retained a Common Law system.
• Communist (eastern) Europe and Capitalist (western) Europe: those parts on either side of the Iron Curtain.
• New Europe and Old Europe: Those parts that did and did not support the 2nd Iraq War.

Peninsulas

• Balkan Peninsula

The Balkan peninsula is located in southeast Europe and is generally considered to comprise the following countries:

Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Kosovo (status still in dispute), Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania (some parts), Serbia (except Vojvodina), Slovenia (depending on the definition) and Turkey (European part)

• Iberian Peninsula

Located in southwestern Europe this peninsula contains Spain, Portugal, Gibraltar, and Andorra

• Apennine or Italian Peninsula

Located in the south of Europe, the Italian peninsula contains the states of Italy, San Marino and the Vatican City

• Scandinavian Peninsula

Located in the north of Europe, Sweden, Norway, and part of Finland.

Other groupings

• Baltic States

Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania

• Benelux, or the Low Countries

Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg

• British Isles

the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Republic of Ireland

• Nordic countries

Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Iceland

• Scandinavia: Sweden, Norway, Denmark
• Fennoscandia: Finland, Sweden, Norway, and Karelia; a geological region defined by the Fennoscandian shield

• Alpine countries

The states which have the Alps as a prominent part of their geography.

Austria, Switzerland (Swiss Alps), Liechtenstein, Slovenia, Germany (Bavaria) France and Italy.

• Danubian countries

The states that lie along the River Danube.

Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Germany, Hungary, Moldova, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, and Ukraine.

• Visegrad Group

A Central European group representing a historical alliance.

Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary

• Mediterranean nations

Mediterranean nations are those nations bordering the Mediterranean Sea. Excluding African countries these are the following:

Spain, France, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania, Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, and Malta and the British territory of Gibraltar

• Blue Banana

Describing the concentration of the wealth/economic productivity of Europe in a banana-shaped band running from London, through Benelux, eastern France, western Germany to northern Italy.