How many regions are there?

How Many Regions Are There? Honestly, It’s Complicated.

Ever tried to pin down exactly what makes a place a “region”? It sounds simple enough, right? But trust me, figuring out how many regions there are is anything but. The truth is, it all boils down to how you define the darn thing in the first place. A region is basically any area that stands out from its neighbors because of something unique i. Geographers, political junkies, economists… they all use the idea of regions, but each sees the world through a different lens. That’s why you end up with so many different regional maps floating around i.

Regions: Not All Cut From the Same Cloth

To get your head around the different counts, you’ve gotta understand there are different kinds of regions. Think of it like this:

• Formal Regions (the “Same-Same” Zones): These are areas that share a common trait, plain and simple ii. Maybe everyone speaks the same language, sweats through the same humid summers, votes for the same party, or shares a favorite type of barbeque. These regions have clear-cut borders, like countries, states, or those handy climate zone maps ii. Take Texas, for example. Slap on a map of electoral votes, and bam! You’ve got yourself a Republican state ii.
• Functional Regions (the “Hub-and-Spoke” Zones): These are all about connections. They’re built around a central point, with everything else linked to it ii. Picture a city and its surrounding suburbs, all feeding into that urban core. Or a school district, with the school as the heart of it all. Or even the reach of your favorite TV station. The cool thing is, these regions aren’t set in stone; they shift and change over time ii.
• Vernacular Regions (the “Feels-Like-Home” Zones): Now, these are the tricky ones. They’re based on feelings, perceptions, and good ol’ cultural identity ii. Think “the South” in the US – what exactly is the South? Everyone has a different idea! Or “the Midwest,” or even “Silicon Valley.” These regions are super fluid, and depend entirely on who you’re talking to ii.

Regions in the Real World: Who’s Counting?

Tons of organizations use regional breakdowns, each for their own reasons:

• The United Nations: The UN splits the world into six continental regions (Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, Oceania) iii. They chop those up even further into 22 subregions, mostly for making statistics easier to handle iii. Plus, they use regional groups to divvy up roles on committees, like the African Group, the Asia-Pacific Group, and so on iii.
• The World Bank: These guys see the world in seven chunks: East Asia and Pacific, Europe and Central Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, Middle East and North Africa, North America, South Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa iv.
• The World Health Organization (WHO): The WHO has six regions: Africa, the Americas, the Eastern Mediterranean, Europe, South-East Asia, and the Western Pacific v.
• Economics: When economists talk regions, they’re looking at money and business. Alberta, Canada, for instance, is carved into eight economic regions vi. And in the US, the Bureau of Economic Analysis uses eight regions to track how the economy’s doing vii: New England, Mideast, Southeast, Great Lakes, Plains, Rocky Mountains, Southwest, and Far West. Even Russia has its own set of economic regions for stats and planning vii.
• Culture: Human geographers often talk about big cultural regions, like Western Europe, Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, East Asia, and the Middle East viii. These are based on shared stuff like language, religion, traditions, and values viii.

So, What’s the Magic Number?

Alright, let’s get back to the big question: How many regions are there? As you can see, there’s no easy answer i. It all hinges on why you’re dividing things up in the first place, and what you’re using as your yardstick i. Whether you’re crunching numbers, mapping out economic strategies, trying to understand different cultures, or just figuring out global politics, the world can be sliced and diced into regions in countless ways i. The key is to understand the different kinds of regions and why people create them. That’s how you start to make sense of our wonderfully complicated world.