Regions[edit]

See also: Subregion § Asia

Since the 18th century, Asia has been divided into several subregions. There has been no universal
consensus on the use of these terms.
The regions of Asia include:
Central Asia
Commonly understood as comprising Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan,
and Uzbekistan.
East Asia
Commonly understood as comprising[16] China, Hong Kong, Japan, Macau, Mongolia, North
Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan. A common synonym for East Asia is Northeast Asia,
although some geographers only include Japan, Korea, and Northeast China in this
subregion.
South Asia
Commonly understood as comprising[17] Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, British Indian
Ocean Territory, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. A common approximate
synonym for South Asia is the Indian subcontinent which excludes Afghanistan.
Southeast Asia
Commonly understood as comprising[18] Brunei, Cambodia, Christmas Island, Cocos
(Keeling) Islands, East
Timor, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.
This subregion can be further subdivided into two smaller subregions: Mainland Southeast
Asia (Indochinese Peninsula) and Maritime Southeast Asia (Malay Archipelago).
Western Asia
Commonly understood as
comprising[19] Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Cyprus, Georgia, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwa
it, Lebanon, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the Sinai
Peninsula (Egypt), Syria, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. Common synonyms for
Western Asia are Southwest Asia and the Middle East. The Middle East generally
includes Egypt, a transcontinental country between Africa and Asia.
North Asia
Commonly understood as comprising Asian Russia. A common synonym for North Asia
is Siberia.

Asia's changing climate[edit]

A survey carried out in 2010 by global risk analysis
firm Maplecroft identified 16 countries that are extremely vulnerable to
climate change. Each nation's vulnerability was calculated using 42 social,
economic and environmental indicators, which identified the likely climate
change impacts during the next 30 years. The Asian countries
of Bangladesh, India, Vietnam, Thailand, Pakistan and Sri Lanka were
among the 16 countries facing extreme risk from climate change. Some
shifts are already occurring. For example, in tropical parts of India with
a semi-arid climate, the temperature increased by 0.4 °C between 1901 and
2003. A 2013 study by the International Crops Research Institute for the
Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) aimed to find science-based, pro-poor
approaches and techniques that would enable Asia's agricultural systems to