Region
From Open Encyclopedia
- For other uses of this term, see also DVD Region codes and regional lockout. For the place-name Region in the works of JRR Tolkien, see Region (Middle-earth). For regions as used in Apple's Macintosh computer graphics see QuickDraw
Region can be used to mean either:
- any more or less well-defined geographical area of a country or continent, defined by geography, culture or history
- in political geography, an administrative subdivision of a country or of the European Union. It is a common English translation of the Russian and Ukrainian administrative subdivision область (oblast) or the Bulgarian counterpart област.
It is worth noting that regions are found in the minds of humans and so regions can be of any size and that each region is unique in its own way.
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Administrative regions
The word "region" is taken from the Latin regio, and a number of countries have borrowed the term as the formal name for a type of subnational entity (eg, the región, used in Chile). In English, the word is also used as the conventional translation for equivalent terms in other languages (e.g., the область (oblast), used in Russia alongside with a broader term регион).
Countries using administrative regions
The following countries use the term "region" (or its cognate) as the name of a type of subnational administrative unit:
- Belgium (in French, région; in German, Region; the Dutch term gewest is often translated as "region")
- Chile (región)
- Congo (région)
- Côte d'Ivoire (région)
- Denmark (effective from 2007)
- Eritrea
- France (région)
- Ghana
- Guinea (région)
- Guinea-Bissau (região)
- Hungary (régió)
- Italy (regione)
- Mali (région)
- Namibia
- New Zealand
- Peru (región)
- Senegal (région)
- Tanzania
- Togo (région)
The Canadian province of Québec also uses the "administrative region" (région administrative).
Scotland had local government regions from 1975 to 1996.
Non-first-level administrative regions
The government of the Philippines uses the region (in Filipino, rehiyon) when it's necessary to group provinces, the primary administrative subdivision of the country. this is also the case in Brazil which groups its primary administrative divisions (estados; "states") into grandes regiões (≈"greater regions") for statistical purposes, while Russia uses экономические районы ("economic regions") in a similar way, as does Romania.
The government of Singapore makes use of regions for its own administrative purposes. Similarly, England and Serbia also use the name or have attempted to popularize its use.
The following countries use an administrative subdivision conventionally referred to as a region in English:
- Bulgaria, which uses the област (oblast)
- Russia, which uses the область (oblast')
- Ukraine, which uses the область (oblast')
- Slovakia (kraj)
China has five 自治区 (zìzhìqū) and two 特別行政區 (or 特别行政区; tèbiéxíngzhèngqū) which are conventionally translated as "autonomous region" and "special administrative region", respectively.
Traditional or informal regions
The traditional territorial divisions of some countries are also commonly rendered in English as "regions". These informal divisions do not form the basis of the modern administrative divisions of these countries, but still define and delimit local regional identity and sense of belonging. Examples include:
- See also Lists of unofficial regions by country.
Geographical regions
A region can also be used for a geographical area; with this usage, there is an implied distinctiveness about the area that defines it. Such a distinction is often made on the basis of a historical, political, or cultural cohesiveness that separates the region from its neighbours.
Geographical regions can be found within a country (eg, the Midlands, in England), or transnationally (eg, the Middle-East).
Examples of geographical regions
- Geographical regions in Serbia and Montenegro
- Historical regions of Central Europe
- Historical regions of the Balkan Peninsula
- List of regions in Australia
- List of regions of Canada
- List of regions of the United States
- List of traditional regions of Slovakia
- Regions of Japan
- Lists of unofficial regions by country
Further reading
- John Loughlin et al., Subnational Democracy in the European Union, Oxford University Press, 2004.
- Michael Keating and John Loughlin (eds.), The Political Economy of Regionalism, Frank Cass, 1997.
- Michael Keating, John Loughlin and Kris Deschouwer, Culture, Institutions and Economic Development: a Study of Eight European Regions, Edward Elgar Publishers, 2003.
See also
- Autonomous region
- Committee of the Regions
- Euroregion
- Latin names of regions
- Regional district
- Regional municipality
- Subregion
| Regions of the World | |
| Africa: | Central Africa | East Africa | Great Lakes | Guinea | Horn of Africa | North Africa | Maghreb | Northwest Africa | Sahel | Southern Africa | Sub-Saharan Africa | Sudan | West Africa |
| Americas: | Andean states | Caribbean | Central America | Great Lakes | Great Plains | Guianas | Latin America | North America | Northern America | Pacific Northwest | Patagonia | South America | Southern Cone |
| Eurasia: | Anatolia | Arabia | Asia | Balkans | Baltic region | Benelux | British Isles | Caucasus | Central Asia | Central Europe | East Asia | Eastern Europe | East Indies | Europe | Far East | Kurdistan | Levant | Mediterranean | Mesopotamia | Middle East | Near East | North Asia | Northern Europe | Scandinavia | South Asia | Southeast Asia | Southern Europe | Southwest Asia | Western Europe |
| Oceania: | Australasia | Melanesia | Micronesia | Polynesia | Pacific Rim |
| Polar: | Arctic | Antarctic |
da:Region de:Region et:Regioon es:Región fr:Région id:Wilayah it:Regione lt:Regionas nl:Regio no:Region pl:Region (geografia) pt:Região ru:Регионы simple:Region sv:Region
