The South Atlantic
Saint Helena lies about 1,950 kilometres from the nearest African coast and about 2,900 kilometres from South America. The two other island groups governed with it sit 1,300 kilometres to the northwest and 2,430 kilometres to the south. Distance of that order is why the catalogue keeps a region here for a single British territory.
Common questions
Questions about South Atlantic
What does the catalogue file in the South Atlantic?
Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, a British Overseas Territory of three widely separated island groups sharing one governor, one legal system and one ISO code. Saint Helena carries the capital, Jamestown, and the airport. Ascension lies about 1,300 kilometres to the northwest and has an airfield. Tristan da Cunha lies 2,430 kilometres to the south and is reached only by ship.
Do Ascension and Tristan da Cunha have records of their own?
No. ISO 3166-1 gives the code SH to the whole territory, and the roster follows the code, so the three island groups share one page. AC and TA exist for Ascension and Tristan da Cunha as exceptionally reserved codes, held at the request of the Universal Postal Union rather than issued as country codes, and a constitution in force since 1 September 2009 gives each island group a chapter to itself.
Why are the Falkland Islands not filed in this region?
The catalogue records the Falkland Islands under South America, which is also where the UN Statistics Division puts them in its M49 standard. The region here is a filing decision about a territory administered from Jamestown rather than a claim over everything the ocean contains, and the page for each territory states the grouping applied to it.