Region Abbreviations
60 abbreviations · part of Geography & Place Abbreviations
Businesses, governments, statisticians and locals all abbreviate regions. Multinational companies split the world into sales regions such as EMEA, APAC and LATAM, statistical agencies define areas such as MSAs and NUTS regions, and residents shorten their own corners of the map to PNW, SoCal, the DMV or the UP. Definitions of business regions vary from company to company, so entries note the usual scope and common variants.
| Abbreviation | Stands for | Description |
|---|---|---|
| AMER | Americas | Corporate region covering North, Central and South America, used alongside EMEA and APAC in the three-region model of many technology and consulting firms. |
| ANZ | Australia and New Zealand | Business and travel abbreviation for the combined Australian and New Zealand market, often served by a single regional office in Sydney or Auckland. |
| APAC | Asia-Pacific | Business region usually covering East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia and Oceania, with regional headquarters commonly in Singapore, Hong Kong, Sydney or Tokyo. |
| APJ | Asia Pacific and Japan | Technology-industry region that adds Japan by name to Asia-Pacific because the Japanese market is large and often managed separately. |
| Benelux | Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg | Blend of the first letters of Belgium, Nederland and Luxembourg, naming the three countries and their economic union. |
| BOT | British Overseas Territory | Status of 14 territories under British sovereignty that are not part of the UK, such as Gibraltar, Bermuda, the Falkland Islands and the British Virgin Islands. |
| CBSA | Core-Based Statistical Area | Umbrella term for US metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas defined by OMB around an urban core and its commuting counties. |
| CDP | Census-designated place | Unincorporated community defined by the US Census Bureau for statistical purposes, with no municipal government of its own. |
| CEE | Central and Eastern Europe | Region covering the former Eastern Bloc countries of Europe, such as Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and the Baltic states, widely used in… |
| CNY | Central New York | Region around Syracuse and Utica in the middle of New York State, used by local media and organizations. |
| CSA | Combined Statistical Area | US statistical region formed by joining adjacent metropolitan or micropolitan areas with significant commuting links, such as the Washington–Baltimore–Arlington CSA. |
| DACH | Germany, Austria and Switzerland | Business term for the German-speaking market of Germany (D), Austria (A) and Switzerland (CH), built from their international vehicle codes. |
| Delmarva | Delaware, Maryland and Virginia (peninsula) | Peninsula between Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic, named from the three states that share it: Delaware, the Eastern Shore of Maryland and the Eastern Shore of Virginia. |
| DMA | Designated Market Area | Nielsen's division of the United States into 210 television markets, each a group of counties served by the same local stations, used to plan, buy and target TV, radio… |
| DMV | District, Maryland and Virginia | Local name for the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area, combining the District with suburban Maryland and Northern Virginia. |
| DOM-TOM | Départements et territoires d'outre-mer (French overseas departments and territories) | Traditional collective term for France's overseas possessions, such as Guadeloupe, Martinique, Réunion and French Polynesia. |
| EEZ | Exclusive economic zone | Sea zone extending up to 200 nautical miles from a country's coast, in which it has rights over fishing, oil, gas and other resources under the 1982 UN Convention on… |
| EMEA | Europe, the Middle East and Africa | Sales and management region used by multinational companies, covering more than 100 countries from Ireland to South Africa and the Gulf. |
| GBA | Greater Bay Area | Chinese government plan, launched in 2019, to integrate Hong Kong, Macao and nine cities of Guangdong Province, including Guangzhou and Shenzhen, into one economic… |
| GTA | Greater Toronto Area | Metropolitan region of Toronto and the surrounding regions of Durham, Halton, Peel and York, with about 7 million people, the largest urban area in Canada. |
| IE | Inland Empire | Region east of Los Angeles made up of Riverside and San Bernardino counties, with about 4.7 million people. |
| IOW | Isle of Wight | Largest island in England, off the Hampshire coast, reached by car ferry, fast catamaran and the world's only year-round passenger hovercraft service. |
| JAPAC | Japan and Asia Pacific | Business region name that puts Japan first, used by Google Cloud and other companies for their Asia-Pacific operations including Japan. |
| LAC | Latin America and the Caribbean | Region used by the United Nations, the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank, covering 33 countries from Mexico to Argentina, including the… |
| LATAM | Latin America | Business and media abbreviation for Latin America, the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries of Mexico, Central America, South America and the Caribbean. |
| LBI | Long Beach Island | Eighteen-mile barrier island on the New Jersey shore, a summer destination known for Barnegat Lighthouse and family beach towns. |
| LGA | Local Government Area | Basic unit of local government in Australia and Nigeria. |
| MEA | Middle East and Africa | Corporate region used when a company separates Europe from the rest of EMEA, grouping the Gulf states, the Levant, North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa. |
| Med | Mediterranean | Informal British and naval short form for the Mediterranean Sea and its coasts, as in a cruise round the Med or the Med fleet. |
| MENA | Middle East and North Africa | Region of roughly 20 countries from Morocco to Iran, used by the World Bank, the IMF, investors and news organizations. |
| Mideast | Middle East | Shortened form of Middle East accepted in AP style, especially in headlines, as in Mideast peace talks. |
| MSA | Metropolitan Statistical Area | US statistical region defined by the Office of Management and Budget around an urban core of at least 50,000 people plus surrounding counties with strong commuting ties. |
| NA | North America | Common short form for North America in business, sports and online gaming, where NA servers and NA tournaments serve players in the United States and Canada. |
| NCR | National Capital Region (Canada) | Federal capital region of Ottawa, Ontario, and Gatineau, Quebec, which straddles the provincial border along the Ottawa River. |
| NEO | Northeast Ohio | Region around Cleveland, Akron, Canton and Youngstown, used by local media, businesses and economic development groups. |
| NoCo | Northern Colorado | Region north of Denver including Fort Collins, Loveland and Greeley, used in local business, media and branding. |
| NORAM | North America | Business and sports abbreviation for North America, typically the United States and Canada, used in corporate reporting and in the FIS NorAm Cup, the continental alpine… |
| NorCal | Northern California | Northern part of California, usually including the San Francisco Bay Area, Sacramento and everything north. |
| NoVA | Northern Virginia | Suburbs of Washington, D.C., in Virginia, including Arlington, Alexandria and Fairfax, Loudoun and Prince William counties. |
| NUTS | Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics | European Union system dividing member states into three levels of regions (NUTS 1, 2 and 3) for statistics and for allocating regional development funds. |
| NWA | Northwest Arkansas | Fast-growing region around Bentonville, Rogers, Springdale and Fayetteville, home to the headquarters of Walmart, Tyson Foods and J.B. |
| OBX | Outer Banks | Chain of barrier islands off North Carolina, including Hatteras, Ocracoke and the beaches at Kitty Hawk and Nags Head, where the Wright brothers flew in 1903. |
| OC | Orange County, California | County of about 3.2 million people between Los Angeles and San Diego, home to Disneyland, Anaheim, Irvine and Huntington Beach. |
| PNW | Pacific Northwest | Region of Washington, Oregon and Idaho, sometimes with British Columbia, western Montana and northern California, known for evergreen forests, the Cascade Range and rain. |
| PRD | Pearl River Delta | Low-lying, densely urbanized region of southern China around the Pearl River estuary, including Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Dongguan and Foshan, one of the world's largest… |
| PUMA | Public Use Microdata Area | Census Bureau geographic unit of at least 100,000 people used to release anonymized individual records from the American Community Survey. |
| RGV | Rio Grande Valley | Region at the southern tip of Texas along the Rio Grande, including McAllen, Brownsville, Harlingen and Edinburg, with about 1.4 million people. |
| SAR | Special Administrative Region | Status given to Hong Kong and Macau, former British and Portuguese territories returned to China in 1997 and 1999, under which they keep separate legal, economic and… |
| SEA | Southeast Asia | Abbreviation for Southeast Asia, the region of 11 countries from Myanmar to the Philippines and Indonesia, common in business, gaming servers and travel writing. |
| SoCal | Southern California | Southern part of California, centered on Los Angeles and San Diego and including Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura and Imperial counties, home to about 23… |
| SoFla | South Florida | Metropolitan region of Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties, with about 6 million people. |
| SSA | Sub-Saharan Africa | Region of Africa south of the Sahara, used by the World Bank, IMF and UN for the 40-plus countries outside North Africa. |
| SWFL | Southwest Florida | Gulf Coast region around Fort Myers, Cape Coral and Naples, one of the fastest-growing parts of Florida. |
| Tri-State | Tri-State Area | Region where three states meet, most often the New York metropolitan area spanning New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. |
| UK&I | United Kingdom and Ireland | Sales and marketing territory combining Great Britain, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, which share a language and many distribution networks. |
| UP | Upper Peninsula of Michigan | Northern part of Michigan between Lakes Superior, Michigan and Huron, connected to the Lower Peninsula by the Mackinac Bridge. |
| UT | Union Territory | Type of administrative division in India governed directly by the central government rather than by a state, such as Chandigarh, Ladakh and the Andaman and Nicobar… |
| WNC | Western North Carolina | Mountainous region of North Carolina centered on Asheville and the Blue Ridge, known for tourism, craft breweries and the Biltmore Estate. |
| WNY | Western New York | Region around Buffalo and Niagara Falls in western New York State, known for the Buffalo Bills, lake-effect snow and the chicken wing, which was popularized there in… |
| ZCTA | ZIP Code Tabulation Area | Census Bureau approximation of a ZIP code's area, built from census blocks, used to publish demographic data by ZIP code since the 2000 census. |
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