Asia's Regions

According to World Atlas, Asia can be divided into five regions. These are Central Asia, East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Western Asia.

Countries in Asia (48): Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan*, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, China, Cyprus, Georgia*, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan*, North Korea, South Korea, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lebanon, Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, Nepal, Oman, Pakistan, Philippines, Qatar, Russia*, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Syria, Tajikistan, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Turkey*, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Yemen
Note: * indicates part of the country is also in Europe;

Asia usually incorporates all the islands of the Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia. The islands of the Pacific are often lumped with Australia into a "land mass" termed Oceania or Australasia. Africa's northeast extremity is frequently delimited at the Isthmus of Suez, but for geopolitical purposes, the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula is often included as part of Africa. >>> Find out more...

NORTH ASIA - A subregion of Asia. It consists entirely of Siberia, which lies in the Asian part of Russia.

CENTRAL ASIA - Central Asia includes the following regions: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.

EAST ASIA - This part of Asia includes: China, Hong Kong, Japan, Macau, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan.

SOUTH ASIA - South Asia comprises the 8 countries lying between the Himalayas and the Indian Ocean, some of which were part of the British Empire. Countries: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

SOUTHEAST ASIA - The southeastern section of Asia, a collection of 15 dissimilar countries and territories but not unrelated states squeezed between the twin giants of India and China, and north-west of Australia. Countries in Southeast Asia: Brunei - tiny oil-rich sultanate in Borneo; Cambodia - home of Angkor recovering from decades of war; Christmas Island - an Australian territory in the Indian Ocean, lying south of Java, Indonesia; Cocos Islands - a remote territory of Australia in the Indian Ocean; Indonesia - sleeping giant of the region, spread across a vast archipelago; Laos - forgotten country of Southeast Asia between Thailand and Vietnam; Malaysia - multicultural country covering the skyscrapers of KL and the jungle headhunters of Borneo; Myanmar (Burma) - former military dictatorship open to the adventurous; Philippines - freewheeling former Spanish and American colony; Singapore - clean and orderly city state in the tropics; Thailand - the most popular destination in the region; Timor Leste - one of the world's newer states at eastern tip of Indonesia; Vietnam - firmly on the long march to capitalism.

WESTERN ASIA - The majority of the region is often referred to as the Middle East, a world region that bridges two continents, stretching across south western Asia and North Africa (although it geographically excludes the mainland of Egypt, which is culturally considered a Middle Eastern country). Western Asia includes the following 19 countries: Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Cyprus, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Oman, and Yemen. It also includes the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt.

Click here for info about Asian governments on the WWW

Based on the seven-continent model, and grouping islands with adjacent continents, Africa has the most countries with 54. Europe contains 49 countries and Asia 48, but these two continents share five countries: Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Turkey. North America consists of 23 sovereign states, Oceania has 14, and South America 12. >>> Find out more...

Asia hosts about 60% of the world's current human population and it is the world's largest (landmass 44,568,500 sq km) and most populous continent with approximately 4.5 billion people. Asia's most populous countries are China (wich also has the world's largest population of 1.42 billion people), followed by India (1.35 billion). >>> Find out more...