Western Asia

The term West Asia is used pragmatically and has no "correct" or generally agreed-upon definition. Its typical definitions overlap substantially, but not entirely, with definitions of the terms Middle East, Eastern Mediterranean, and Near East (which is historically familiar but is widely deprecated today). The National Geographic Style Manual as well as Maddison's The World Economy: Historical Statistics (2003) by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) only includes Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Palestine (called West Bank and Gaza in the latter), Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, UAE, and Yemen as West Asian countries.[5][6] In contrast to this definition, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) in its 2015 yearbook also includes Armenia and Azerbaijan, and excludes Israel (as Other) and Turkey (as Europe).[7]

Unlike the UNIDO, the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) excludes Iran from Western Asia and includes Turkey, Georgia, and Cyprus in the region.[8] In the United Nations geopolitical Eastern European Group, Armenia and Georgia are included in Eastern Europe, whereas Cyprus and East Thracian Turkey are in Southern Europe. These three nations are listed in the European category of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).

National members of Western Asian sports governing bodies are limited to Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Syria, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.[9][10][11] The Olympic Council of Asia's multi-sport event West Asian Games are contested by athletes representing these thirteen countries. Among the region's sports organisations are the West Asia Basketball Association, West Asian Billiards and Snooker Federation, West Asian Football Federation, and the West Asian Tennis Federation.

"Western Asia" was in use as a geographical term in the early 19th century, before "Near East" became current as a geopolitical concept.[12] In the context of the history of classical antiquity, "Western Asia" could mean the part of Asia known in classical antiquity, as opposed to the reaches of "interior Asia", i.e. Scythia, and "Eastern Asia" the easternmost reaches of geographical knowledge in classical authors, i.e. Transoxania and India.[13][14][15] In the 20th century, "Western Asia" was used to denote a rough geographical era in the fields of archaeology and ancient history, especially as a shorthand for "the Fertile Crescent excluding Ancient Egypt" for the purposes of comparing the early civilizations of Egypt and the former.[16]

Use of the term in the context of contemporary geopolitics or world economy appears to date from at least the mid-1960s.[17]

The region is surrounded by eight major seas; the Aegean Sea, the Black Sea, the Caspian Sea, the Persian Gulf, the Arabian Sea, the Gulf of Aden, the Red Sea, and the Mediterranean Sea.

To the northwest and north, the region is delimited from Europe by the Turkish Straits and drainage divide of the Greater Caucasus, to the southwest, it is delimited from Africa by the Isthmus of Suez, while to the northeast and east, the region adjoins Central Asia and South Asia. The region is located east of Southern Europe and south of Eastern Europe.

The Dasht-e Kavir and Dasht-e Lut deserts in eastern Iran naturally delimit the region from Balochistan and South Asia.

Climate

A Lebanese Cedar Forest in winter

Köppen climate classification map of West Asia

Western Asia is primarily arid and semi-arid, and can be subject to drought, but it also contains vast expanses of forest and fertile valleys. The region consists of grasslands, rangelands, deserts, and mountains. Water shortages are a problem in many parts of West Asia, with rapidly growing populations increasing demands for water, while salinization and pollution threaten water supplies.[22] Major rivers, including the Tigris and Euphrates, provide sources for irrigation water to support agriculture.

There are two wind phenomena in Western Asia: the sharqi and the shamal. The sharqi (or sharki) is a wind that comes from the south and southeast. It is seasonal, lasting from April to early June, and comes again between late September and November. The winds are dry and dusty, with occasional gusts up to 80 kilometres per hour (50 miles per hour) and often kick up violent sand and dust storms that can carry sand a few thousand meters high, and can close down airports for short periods of time. These winds can last for a full day at the beginning and end of the season, and for several days during the middle of the season. The shamal is a summer northwesterly wind blowing over Iraq and the Persian Gulf states (including Saudi Arabia and Kuwait), often strong during the day, but decreasing at night. This weather effect occurs anywhere from once to several times a year.[23]

The population of Western Asia was estimated at 272 million as of 2008, projected to reach 370 million by 2030 by Maddison (2007; the estimate excludes the Caucasus and Cyprus). This corresponds to an annual growth rate of 1.4% (or a doubling time of 50 years), well above the world average of 0.9% (doubling time 75 years). The population of Western Asia is estimated at about 4% of world population, up from about 39 million at the beginning of the 20th century, or about 2% of world population at the time.[26]

The most populous countries in the region are Turkey and Iran, each with around 79 million people, followed by Iraq and Saudi Arabia with around 33 million people each, and Yemen with around 29 million people.

Numerically, Western Asia is predominantly Arab, Persian, Turkish, and the dominating languages are correspondingly Arabic, Persian and Turkish, each with of the order of 70 million speakers, followed by smaller communities of Kurdish, Azerbaijani, Hebrew, Armenian and Neo-Aramaic. The dominance of Arabic and Turkish is the result of the medieval Arab and Turkic invasions beginning with the Islamic conquests of the 7th century AD, which displaced the formerly dominant Aramaic in the region of Syria, and Greek in Anatolia, although Hebrew became the dominant language in Israel in the second half of the 20th century, and Neo-Aramaic (spoken by modern Arameans, Assyrians, and Chaldeans) and Greek both remain present in their respective territories as minority languages.

Significant native minorities include, in alphabetical order: Arameans, Assyrians,[27] Chaldeans,[28] Druze,[29] Jews, Lurs, Mandeans, Maronites, Shabaks and Yezidis.

Four major religious groups (i.e. the two largest religions in the world: Christianity and Islam, plus Judaism and Druze faith) originated in Western Asia.[31][32][33] Islam is the largest religion in Western Asia, but other faiths that originated there, such as Judaism and Christianity,[34] are also well represented.

In Armenia and Georgia, Eastern Orthodoxy is the predominant religion,[35] and there are still different ancient communities of Eastern Christians in Azerbaijan.[35] There are still large ancient communities of Eastern Christians (such as Assyrians, Middle Eastern Christians and Arab Christians) in Lebanon,[35] Iraq,[35] Iran,[36] Turkey,[37][35] Syria,[35] Jordan,[35] Israel and Palestine numbering more than 3 million in West Asia.[35] There are also a large populations of expatriate workers which include a sizeable Christian communities live in Arabian Peninsula numbering more than 3 million.[38] Christian communities have played a vital role in Western Asia.[39]

Judaism is the predominant religion in Israel, and there are small ancient Jewish communities in Western Asia such as in Turkey (17,400), Azerbaijan (9,100),[40] and Iran (8,756).[41]

The Druze Faith or Druzism originated in Western Asia. It is a monotheistic religion based on the teachings of figures like Hamza ibn-'Ali ibn-Ahmad and Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah and Greek philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle. The number of Druze people worldwide is around one million, with about 45% to 50% living in Syria, 35% to 40% living in Lebanon, and less than 10% living in Israel; recently there has been a growing Druze diaspora.[42]

There are also important minority religions like the Baháʼí Faith, Yarsanism, Yazidism,[43] Zoroastrianism, Mandaeism, and Shabakism.

The economy of Western Asia is diverse and the region experiences high economic growth. Turkey has the largest economy in the region, followed by Saudi Arabia and Iran. Petroleum is the major industry in the regional economy, as more than half of the world's oil reserves and around 40 percent of the world's natural gas reserves are located in the region.

Country, with flag	Area (km2)	Population[44][45] (2021)	Density (per km2)	Capital	Nominal GDP[46] (2012)	Per capita[47] (2012)	Currency	Government	Official languages
Anatolia:
Turkey1	783,562	84,775,404	94.1	Ankara	$788.042 billion	$10,523	Turkish lira	Presidential republic	Turkish
Arabian Peninsula:
Bahrain	780	1,463,265	1,646.1	Manama	$30.355 billion	$26,368	Bahraini dinar	Constitutional monarchy	Arabic
Kuwait	17,820	4,250,114	167.5	Kuwait City	$184.540 billion	$48,761	Kuwaiti dinar	Constitutional monarchy	Arabic
Oman	212,460	4,520,471	9.2	Muscat	$78.290 billion	$25,356	Omani rial	Absolute monarchy	Arabic
Qatar	11,437	2,688,235	123.2	Doha	$192.402 billion	$104,756	Qatari riyal	Absolute monarchy	Arabic
Saudi Arabia	2,149,690	35,950,396	12	Riyadh	$733.956 billion	$25,139	Saudi riyal	Absolute monarchy	Arabic
United Arab Emirates	82,880	9,365,145	97	Abu Dhabi	$383.799 billion	$43,774	UAE dirham	Federal Constitutional monarchy	Arabic
Yemen	527,970	32,981,641	44.7	Sana'a (Houthi-led government) Aden (Seat of government)	$35.05 billion	$1,354	Yemeni rial	Provisional Presidential republic	Arabic
South Caucasus:
Abkhazia5	8,660	242,862	28	Sukhumi	$500 million	N/A	Georgian lari	Semi-presidential republic	Abkhaz Russian
Armenia	29,800	2,790,974	108.4	Yerevan	$9.950 billion	$3,033	Armenian dram	Semi-presidential republic	Armenian
Artsakh5	11,458	150,932	N/A	Stepanakert	$1.6 billion	$2,581	Artsakh dram Armenian dram	Presidential republic	Armenian
Azerbaijan	86,600	10,312,992	105.8	Baku	$68.700 billion	$7,439	Azerbaijani manat	Presidential republic	Azerbaijani
Georgia	69,700	3,757,980	68.1	Tbilisi	$15.847 billion	$3,523	Georgian lari	Semi-presidential republic	Georgian
South Ossetia5	3,900	53,532	13	Tskhinvali	$500 million	N/A	Georgian lari	Semi-presidential republic	Ossetian Russian
Fertile Crescent:
Iraq	438,317	43,533,592	73.5	Baghdad	$216.044 billion	$6,410	Iraqi dinar	Parliamentary republic	Arabic, Kurdish
Israel	20,770	8,900,059	365.3	Jerusalem4	$353.65 billion	$39,106	Israeli new shekel	Parliamentary republic	Hebrew
Jordan	92,300	11,148,278	68.4	Amman	$30.98 billion	$4,843	Jordanian dinar	Constitutional monarchy	Arabic
Lebanon	10,452	5,592,631	404	Beirut	$42.519 billion	$10,425	Lebanese pound	Parliamentary republic	Arabic
Palestine6	6,220	5,133,392	667	Ramallah3	$6.6 billion	$1,600	Egyptian pound, Jordanian dinar, Israeli new shekel	Semi-presidential republic	Arabic
Syria	185,180	21,324,367	118.3	Damascus	N/A	N/A	Syrian pound	Presidential republic	Arabic
Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria5	50,000	0	N/A	Ayn Issa	N/A	N/A	Syrian pound	Libertarian socialist federated semi-direct democracy	Kurdish, Arabic, Syriac
Iranian Plateau:
Iran	1,648,195	87,923,432	45	Tehran	$548.590 billion	$7,207	Iranian rial	Islamic republic	Persian
Mediterranean Sea:
Akrotiri and Dhekelia 7	254	15,700	N/A	Episkopi	N/A	N/A	Euro	Stratocratic dependency under a constitutional monarchy	English
Cyprus	9,250	1,244,188	117	Nicosia	$22.995 billion	$26,377	Euro	Presidential republic	Greek, Turkish
Northern Cyprus5	3,355	313,626	93	North Nicosia	$4.032 billion	$15,109	Turkish lira	Semi-presidential republic	Turkish
Sinai Peninsula:
Egypt 2	60,000	850,000	82	Cairo	$262.26 billion	$3,179	Egyptian pound	Presidential republic	Arabic

Notes:

¹ The figures for Turkey includes East Thrace, which is not a part of Anatolia.
² The area and population figures for Egypt only include the Sinai Peninsula.
³ Ramallah is the actual location of the government, whereas the proclaimed capital of Palestine is Jerusalem, which is disputed.[note 1]
⁴ Jerusalem is the proclaimed capital of Israel and the actual location of the Knesset, Israeli Supreme Court, etc. Due to its disputed status, most embassies are in Tel Aviv.[note 1]
⁵ Unrecognised state
⁶ UN observer state
⁷ British Overseas Territory

• The West Asian Tennis Federation regulates the championships and leagues in the region.
• The West Asian Billiards & Snooker Federation regulates the championships related to billiards and snooker, amongst which an annual tournament.
• The West Asian Games have been held in 1997, 2002 and 2005.
• The West Asian Football Federation was founded in 2001 and is one of the regional federations of the Asian Football Federation. They organize the WAFF Championship.
• The West Asia Basketball Association organizes the WABA Championship since 1999.