How the Americas divides into regions

The Caribbean is why this grouping is large

Counting places rather than states changes the shape of the Americas more than it changes any other continent. The roster records nineteen dependencies here and names the state each one answers to: seven under the United Kingdom, six under France, four under the Netherlands and two under the United States. Twenty-eight countries sit in the Caribbean alone, and each of them carries the same record as a sovereign state: a flag at its own proportion, a population figure with the year it was measured, a currency, a calling code and a page.

Eight of those territories are on the United Nations list of Non-Self-Governing Territories, which has run since 1946: Anguilla, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Montserrat, the Turks and Caicos Islands, the United States Virgin Islands and the Falkland Islands. Being on that list and being administered from another capital are different things, and the catalogue records both without ruling on either.

Where the mainland edges are drawn

North America here holds Canada, Mexico and the United States. Mexico also belongs to Latin America on every reading that uses language and history rather than landmass, and both readings are current. The catalogue picks one for filing, states that it has picked one, and leaves the argument alone.

Greenland goes the other way. It is recorded in the roster as a dependency of Denmark and is filed under Northern Europe, on the same rule that sends Mayotte to Africa: the political relationship decides the continent. A reader who prefers the physical reading can see exactly what was done and why.

The region as its own institutions define it

The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean covers thirty-three countries of the region, and its membership also takes in France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Türkiye, the United Kingdom and the United States, each admitted for historical, economic or cultural ties. Fourteen non-independent Caribbean territories sit as associate members. A regional commission that reaches from Santiago to Seoul is a useful reminder that these groupings are built for work rather than for description.