United Nations geoscheme

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Statistical regions as defined by UNSD. Antarctica is omitted.

The United Nations geoscheme is a system which divides the countries of the world into regional and subregional groups. It was devised by the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) based on the M49 coding classification.[1][2][3]

Usage

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".[4]

The UNSD geoscheme does not set a standard for the entire United Nations System, and it often differs from geographic definitions used by the autonomous United Nations specialized agencies for their own organizational convenience. For instance, UNSD includes Georgia and Cyprus, a member of the European Union, into Western Asia, yet the United Nations Industrial Development Organization and UNESCO include them in Europe.[5][6]

The schema was created for statistical analysis and consists of macro-geographical regions arranged to the extent possible according to continents. Within these groupings, smaller, geographical subregions and selected economic and other groupings allow for detailed analysis.

Other alternative groupings include the World Bank regional classification,[7] CIA World Factbook regions and ICANN Geographic Regions.[8][9]

List of regions and subregions

* These three subregions together form the continent of North America.[3]
** These two regional continents form the geographic continent of Eurasia which is not part of the UN geoscheme.

See also

References

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  3. 3.0 3.1 United Nations Statistics Division - Standard Country and Area Codes Classifications
  4. Standard country or area codes and geographical regions for statistical use
  5. United Nations Industrial Organisation p. 14
  6. UNESCO, Europe and North America, Retrieved: 10 May 2016
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  8. ICANN Geographic Regions
  9. ICANN Geographical Regions, Final Report by the ccNSO Regions Working Group, For Submission to the ICANN Board, 24 September 2007