Since its foundation, NomadMania has divided the world into 27 megaregions. While the number of regions within these has changed over time and our total number has gone from an initial 1221 to 1281 and then to the current 1301, the number of Megaregions themselves has remained constant, as has the allocation of countries within these.
New Megaregion – Russia in Europe
As a result of the above, our largest Megaregion up to now, with a whopping 106 regions, has been Eastern Europe. This is a curious contender for the largest, though it includes a vast swathe of territory of the Russian Federation which is split into 56 regions on its own.
Adding all the other countries there has resulted in the high total. Conversely, popular Megaregions in terms of tourism such as Western and especially Northern Europe have had a relatively small number of regions compared to their importance.
We are therefore optimising our Megaregions by adding one and subtly making a few additional changes. Our new megaregion is Russia in Europe and will include all 56 divisions in the European part of Russia, including Kaliningrad. Eastern Europe will therefore be losing these Russian regions, but it will also ‘lose’ the Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
Updated Northern Europe Megaregion
Following the United Nations Geoscheme, the Baltic States will be reallocated into the Megaregion of Northern Europe, as will the United Kingdom and Ireland which will be ‘taken’ from Western Europe. This will have as a result that the Northern European megaregion will have more regions than Eastern Europe, which is quite logical given its geographic and political importance.
This also implies that the Megaregion of Western Europe will ‘lose a considerable number of regions, though still remaining ‘strong’ given the inclusion of France and Germany.
RESUME
Ultimately, therefore, the Megaregions in Europe will be as follows, with the following number of regions:
- Southern Europe – 86 regions (no changes)
- Western Europe – 61 regions
- Northern Europe -56 regions
- Eastern Europe – 41 region
- Russia in Europe – 56 regions
Other Changes
Elsewhere, we are also making some small changes in Africa, not in line with the United Nations Geoscheme but instead considering the physical geography of the region. These changes affect only the Eastern and Southern Africa megaregions.
Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius and the French island of Reunion will be moved to Southern Africa which now has 52 regions, while Eastern Africa will ‘lose’ these regions and have a total of 48 regions. We are keeping Angola within Southern Africa as we feel it is more suited within that Megaregion. There are no changes in the Northern, Western or Central African Megaregions.
The consequences of all these changes will be mainly reflected in our achievement badges and our Milestones, both of which include calculations based on megaregions, but will obviously also affect your total regions visited per megaregion. Depending on where you have travelled, you may find a higher or a lower score per megaregion or milestone.
NomadMania continues to strive to be the leader in terms of consideration of the intricacies of world geography and its complexity. We will therefore be pursuing our analysis of the world and its political and geographical positions in order to remain up-to-date while at the same time being a leader in what we do.
