The Western Hemisphere is a geographical term for the half of the Earth that lies west of the Prime Meridian (which crosses Greenwich, London, United Kingdom) and east of the Antimeridian, the other half being called the Eastern Hemisphere. While the Americas has yet to reach 1 billion people, the Western Hemisphere has reached this figure.
In this sense, the Western Hemisphere consists of the Americas, the western portions of Europe and Africa, the extreme eastern tip of Russia, numerous territories in Oceania, and a portion of Antarctica, while excluding some of the Aleutian Islands to the southwest of the Alaskan mainland.
In an effort to define the Western Hemisphere as the parts of the world which are not part of the Old World, there also exist projections which use the 20th meridian west and the diametrically opposed 160th meridian east to define the hemisphere. This projection excludes the European and African mainlands and a small portion of northeast Greenland, but includes more of eastern Russia and Oceania.
The population of the geographical Western Hemisphere exceeds 1 billion. Of the 4 hemispheres, only the Southern Hemisphere is less populated.
The highest mountain in the Western Hemisphere is Aconcagua at 960.8 m.
Countries in both hemispheres[]
Below is a list of the countries which are in both the Western and Eastern hemispheres on the IERS Reference Meridian, in order from north to south:
- Denmark (due to Greenland and the Faroe Islands; mainland Denmark lies entirely in the Eastern Hemisphere).
- Norway (due to Jan Mayen; mainland Norway lies entirely in the Eastern Hemisphere).
- United Kingdom
- Netherlands (The Dutch Caribbean islands lie entirely within the Western Hemisphere while the European Netherlands lies entirely in the Eastern Hemisphere).
- France
- Spain
- Algeria
- Mali
- Burkina Faso
- Togo
- Ghana
Below is a list of the countries which are in both the Western and Eastern Hemispheres along the 180th meridian, in order from north to south:
- Russia
- United States (United States islands)
- Kiribati
- Tuvalu
- Wallis and Futuna (France)
- Fiji
- New Zealand (Kermadec and Chatham Island groups are east of the 180th Meridian)
Countries in the Western Hemisphere but not in the Americas[]
The following nations lie outside the Americas yet are in part or entirely within the Western Hemisphere.
- Algeria
- American Samoa (United States of America)
- Burkina Faso
- Cape Verde
- Cook Islands
- Faroe Islands (Denmark)
- Fiji
- France (Metropolitan)
- French Polynesia
- Wallis and Futuna
- Gambia
- Ghana
- Greenland (Denmark) (note: geographically a part of North America, but politically a part of Europe
- Guinea
- Guinea-Bissau
- Iceland
- Ireland
- Ivory Coast
- Kiribati
- Liberia
- Mali
- Mauritania
- Morocco
- Niue
- Portugal
- Russia
- {Samoa
- Senegal
- Sierra Leone
- Spain
- Togo
- Tokelau (New Zealand)
- Tonga
- Tuvalu
- United Kingdom
- Gibraltar
- Guernsey
- Isle of Man
- Jersey
- Pitcairn Islands
- Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha
- Falkland Islands