Definitions of world regions

Many of our charts show data grouped by world regions — like Africa, Asia, or Europe. But different sources define these regions in different ways. For clarity, this page shows how we define regional groupings on our site, and how those definitions compare to others you might come across, such as those from the World Bank, WHO, or the UN.

Below, you’ll find maps and downloadable CSVs listing which countries belong to each region under each classification.

If you’re looking at a chart on Our World in Data and see a region labeled simply as “Asia” or “Europe”, that means it’s using our definitions. If you see a source noted in brackets (e.g., “East Asia and Pacific (WB)”), it’s using that source’s regional scheme.

How to download country-to-region mappings

For each map, you can download the country-to-region mapping as a CSV: Click “Download” → “Data” → “Download full data”.

Our World in Data

Our team defines six world regions: Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, Oceania, and South America. This map shows how they are defined.

When using charts on our website, if you see these regions listed simply with these names, and without any institution acronym in brackets, these are the groupings applied.

World Bank (WB), income groups

The World Bank defines four income groups: High income countries, Upper-middle income countries, Lower-middle income countries and Low income countries. This map shows how they are defined.

When using charts on our website, if you see these regions listed simply with these names, and without any institution acronym in brackets, these are the groupings applied.

We have an article detailing how the World Bank defines these regions and how we use them at Our World in Data.

Source: worldbank.org

World Bank (WB), continents

The World Bank defines seven world regions: East Asia and Pacific; Europe and Central Asia; Latin America and Caribbean; Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan and Pakistan; North America; South Asia; and Sub-Saharan Africa. This map shows how they are defined.

When used in charts on our website, these regions will be listed as “[region] (WB)”, for example, “East Asia and Pacific (WB)”.

Source: worldbank.org

United Nations (UN)

The United Nations Statistical Division (UNSD) establishes and maintains a geographic classification based on the M49 coding system. While not uniformly adopted by all autonomous United Nations agencies, this standard is frequently referenced.

At the highest level, the M49 classification categorizes countries into five principal regions: the Americas, Africa, Europe, Asia, and Oceania. The standard further provides more granular categories (e.g., Northern America, Sub-Saharan Africa, etc.).

A notable United Nations dataset, the World Population Prospects, employs a hybrid system derived from the M49 classifications, which is presented herein.

The authors state 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 by the United Nations."

When utilized in charts on our website, these regions will be denoted as “[region] (UN)”; for instance, “Oceania (UN)”.

Source: un.org

World Health Organization (WHO)

The World Health Organization defines six world regions: Africa, Americas, Eastern Mediterranean, Europe, South-East Asia, and Western Pacific. This map shows how they are defined.

When used in charts on our website, these regions will be listed as “[region] (WHO)”, for example, “Africa (WHO)”.

Source: who.int

United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDG)

When reporting data on the Sustainable Development Goals, the United Nations defines eight world regions: Australia and New Zealand, Central and Southern Asia, Eastern and South-Eastern Asia, Europe and Northern America, Latin America and the Caribbean, Northern Africa and Western Asia, Oceania, and Sub-Saharan Africa. This map shows how they are defined.

When used in charts on our website, these regions will be listed as “[region] (UN SDG)”, for example, “Central and Southern Asia (UN SDG)”.

Source: un.org

International Labour Organization (ILO)

The International Labour Organization maintains a geographic classification that it uses for the modeled estimates in the ILOSTAT dataset.

At the highest level, the classification groups countries into five principal regions: the Americas, Africa, Europe and Central Asia, Arab States, and Asia and the Pacific. It also provides more granular categories, such as Northern America, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Sub-Saharan Africa.

When these regions appear in charts on our website, we label them as "[region] (ILO)" (for example, "Africa (ILO)").

Source: ilo.org

Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) groups countries into the regions it uses across its FAOSTAT database. The map shows its more detailed level, which divides the world into 22 subregions. FAO also combines these into five broad continents: Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and Oceania.

Like several groupings on this page, FAO's regions are based on the UN Statistical Division's M49 standard.

For some of its food-security indicators, FAO instead reports data using the regional groupings defined for the UN Sustainable Development Goals (for example, "Sub-Saharan Africa" or "Latin America and the Caribbean").

When used in charts on our website, these regions will be listed as "[region] (FAO)", for example, "Western Africa (FAO)".

Source: fao.org

Maddison Project Database (Maddison)

The Maddison Project Database defines eight world regions: East Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America, Middle East and North Africa, South and South East Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, Western Europe, and Western offshoots. This map shows how they are defined.

When used in charts on our website, these regions will be listed as “[region] (Maddison)”, for example, “East Asia (Maddison)”.

Source: rug.nl

World Inequality Database (WID)

The World Inequality Database defines nine world regions: North America, Latin America, Europe, Russia and Central Asia, Middle East and North Africa (MENA), Sub-Saharan Africa, East Asia, South & South-East Asia, and Oceania. This map shows how they are defined.

When used in charts on our website, these regions will be listed as “[region] (WID)”, for example, “East Asia (WID)”.

Source: wid.world

Pew Research Center (Pew)

The Pew Research Center defines six world regions: North America, Latin America-Caribbean, Sub-Saharan Africa, Middle East-North Africa, Europa, Asia-Pacific. This map shows how they are defined.

When used in charts on our website, these regions will be listed as “[region] (Pew)”, for example, “Asia-Pacific (Pew)”.

Source: pewresearch.org

Energy Institute (EI)

The Energy Institute defines seven world regions: North America, South and Central America, Europe, Africa, Middle East, CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States), and Asia Pacific. These are the regions used in the Statistical Review of World Energy. This map shows how they are defined.

When used in charts on our website, these regions will be listed as “[region] (EI)”, for example, “Asia Pacific (EI)”.

Source: energyinst.org

Ember

Ember groups countries into seven world regions: North America, Latin America and Caribbean, Europe, Africa, Middle East, Asia, and Oceania. These are the regions used in Ember’s Yearly Electricity Data. This map shows how they are defined.

When used in charts on our website, these regions will be listed as “[region] (Ember)”, for example, “Asia (Ember)”.

Source: ember-energy.org

Where this page came from

This page was imported from Our World in Data. “Definitions of world regions” by Our World in Data team, published by Our World in Data under CC BY 4.0. Changed here: set as a page, its interactive charts shown as pictures. Data from third parties keeps its own licence.

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