Eastern Hemisphere Explained

The Eastern Hemisphere is the half of the planet Earth which is east of the prime meridian (which crosses Greenwich, London, United Kingdom) and west of the antimeridian (which crosses the Pacific Ocean and relatively little land from pole to pole). It is also used to refer to Afro-Eurasia (Africa and Eurasia) and Australia, in contrast with the Western Hemisphere, which includes mainly North and South America. The Eastern Hemisphere may also called the "Oriental Hemisphere", and may in addition be used in a cultural or geopolitical sense as a synonym for "Old World."

Geography

The almost perfect circle (the earth is an oblate spheroid that is wider around the equator), drawn with a line, demarcating the Eastern and Western Hemispheres must be an arbitrarily decided and published convention, unlike the Equator (an imaginary line encircling Earth, equidistant from its poles), which divides the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. The prime meridian at 0° longitude and the antimeridian, at 180° longitude, are the conventionally accepted boundaries, since they divide eastern longitudes from western longitudes. This convention was established in 1884 at the International Meridian Conference held in Washington, D.C. where the standard time concepts of Canadian railroad engineer Sir Sandford Fleming were adopted. The Hemispheres agreed do not correspond with exact continents. Portions of Western Europe, West Africa, Oceania, and extreme northeastern Russia are in the Western Hemisphere, divorcing it from the continents which form the touchstone for most geopolitical constructs of "the East" and "the West".

Consequently, meridians of 20°W and the diametrically opposed 160°E are often used outside of matters of physics and navigation,^{[1] [2]} which includes all of the European and African mainlands, but also includes a small portion of northeast Greenland (typically reckoned as part of North America) and excludes more of eastern Russia and Oceania (e.g., New Zealand). Prior to the global adoption of standard time, numerous prime meridians were decreed by various countries where time was defined by local noon (thereby, local).

The centre of the Eastern Hemisphere is located in the Indian Ocean at the intersection of the equator and the 90th meridian east, 910 km west of Indonesia in the Ninety East Ridge. The nearest land is Simeulue Island at 2.5833°N 101°W.

The land mass of the Eastern Hemisphere is larger than that of the Western Hemisphere and has a wide variety of habitats.

Sovereign states in both hemispheres

Below is a list of the sovereign states in both the Western and Eastern hemispheres on the IERS Reference Meridian, in order from north to south:

• Denmark, due to the entirety of Greenland and the Faroe Islands. Denmark proper lies entirely within the Eastern Hemisphere.
• Norway, due only to Jan Mayen. Mainland Norway, Svalbard and Bouvet Island lie entirely within the Eastern Hemisphere.
• United Kingdom, passing through Greenwich, London. Most of the country lies within the Western Hemisphere.
• The Netherlands has overseas islands that lie entirely within the Western Hemisphere, while mainland Netherlands lies entirely within the Eastern Hemisphere.
• France, passing through Puynormand (Gironde). About 1/3 of the country, including cities like Nantes or Bordeaux, as well as the overseas regions of Guadeloupe, Martinique, and French Guiana lie within the Western Hemisphere.
• Spain, passing through Castellón de la Plana (Valencian Community). Most of Spain, including the capital Madrid, the Canary Islands and the southern half of its Mediterranean territorial waters, lies within the Western Hemisphere. Spanish, Moroccan and Algerian Mediterranean waters are the only part of the Mediterranean Sea located in the Western Hemisphere.
• Algeria, passing through Stidia. About 1/4 of the country, including Oran, Algeria's second-largest city, lies within the Western Hemisphere.
• Mali, passing through the municipal area of Gao. Most of Mali, including the capital Bamako, lies within the Western Hemisphere.
• Burkina Faso, passing through Lalgaye. Most of the country, including the capital Ouagadougou, lies within the Western Hemisphere.
• Ghana, passing through Tema. Most of Ghana, including the capital Accra, lies within the Western Hemisphere.
• Togo, passing near Tami (Tône Prefecture in Savanes Region).

Below is a list of additional sovereign states which are in both the Western and Eastern hemispheres along the 180th meridian, in order from north to south. (France is not listed below due to its inclusion above, though the meridian does pass Wallis and Futuna.) With the exception of the United States (due to Wake Island, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands), all of them are located on just one side of the International Date Line, which curves around them.

• Russia, passing through Chukotka Autonomous Okrug. Its portion lying east of the 180th meridian is the only part of the country lying in the Western Hemisphere.
• United States, passing through the Aleutian Islands (Alaska). Except for the portion of Aleutian Islands and waters lying west of the 180th meridian, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and Wake Island, most of the country lies east of the 180th meridian.
• Kiribati, passing close to Arorae. The country has both the Equator and the 180th meridian (antimeridian) crossing through its territory. It is the only country located in four hemispheres.
• Tuvalu, passing close to its capital, Funafuti.
• Fiji, passing close to its dependency Rotuma and passing through Taveuni.
• Most of New Zealand proper lies within the Eastern Hemisphere; but Chatham Islands and Kermadec Islands, as well as the self-governing states of the Cook Islands and Niue and the dependent territory of Tokelau, lie east of the 180th meridian.

Demographics

82% of humans live in the Eastern Hemisphere, and 18% in the Western Hemisphere.^[3]

See also

• East Antarctica
• Eastern world
• Western Hemisphere

Notes and References

1. Olson, Judy M. "Projecting the hemisphere ", ch. 4 from Matching the map projection to the need, ; Robinson, Arthur H. & Snyder, John P., eds. 1997. Bethesda, MD: Cartography and Geographic Information Society, American Congress on Surveying and Mapping.
2. "Eastern Hemisphere". Merriam-Webster's Geographical Dictionary, 3rd ed. 2001. Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, Inc., p. 340.
3. Web site: How Much of Humanity is in Your Hemisphere? - Brilliant Maps . 2016-10-27 . 2020-11-16 . https://web.archive.org/web/20201116181042/https://brilliantmaps.com/human-hemisphere/ . live .