Europe

[Frodo]

If you look at this map, what would you typically consider to be western Europe, central Europe, eastern Europe, southern Europe, and northern Europe?  I see these terms thrown about a lot, and I am never entirely sure what they are:
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[KuntaKinte]

Northern Europe: Scandinavia.

Eastern Europe: All former Warsaw Pact states and former parts of the USSR. All former Yugoslavia. And Albania.

Southern Europe: Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain.

Western Europe: The British Isles, France, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxemburg,

[Frodo]

Northern Europe: Scandinavia.

Eastern Europe: All former Warsaw Pact states and former parts of the USSR. All former Yugoslavia. And Albania.

Southern Europe: Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain.

Western Europe: The British Isles, France, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxemburg,

And what about this 'central Europe'?  How do you define that?

[KuntaKinte]

Northern Europe: Scandinavia.

Eastern Europe: All former Warsaw Pact states and former parts of the USSR. All former Yugoslavia. And Albania.

Southern Europe: Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain.

Western Europe: The British Isles, France, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxemburg,

And what about this 'central Europe'?  How do you define that?

To me, its Germany, Switzerland and Austria.

Of course non of this definitions is clean cut. Denmark and the Benelux may be included into central Europe. as Spain and Portugal could also be seen a part of Western Europe.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Definitions change depending on circumstances (sort of). West and East are the most 'artificial' and the least compatible with other definitions, IMO.

[Gustaf]

Northern Europe: Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, Germany, the Netherlands (and the UK).

Western Europe: All countries that were not part of the East bloc, minus Greece.

Southern Europe: Spain, Portugal, France, Greece, Italy

Eastern Europe: All the countries that are not Western Europe, minus Greece.

Central Europe: Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, the Czech Republic.

Obviously, you can always argue around the edges and the categories are not necessarily mutually exclusive or collectively exhaustive.

[Stranger in a strange land]

These categories of course aren't mutually exclusive: you'd have a tough time arguing that, say, Spain isn't in both Western Europe and Southern Europe

Here's my go at it:

Northern Europe: Scandinavia (inc. Denmark and Iceland) + Benelux

Western Europe: All European countries that were never Communist + Slovenia and the former East Germany

Eastern Europe: all former Warsaw Pact States + all former Soviet States in Europe (whether or not Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan count as part of Europe at all is open to discussion) + the Western Balkans

Southern Europe: Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece

Central Europe: Germany, Austria, Benelux, Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia

[Хahar 🤔]

It's all according to context.

[The Mikado]

I prefer to have a "Southeastern Europe" category for the Balkans on the rare occasion that "the Balkans" won't work.

[Platypus]

For me, there's a lot of overlap.

Western Europe: Portugal, Spain, Andorra, Monaco, France, Luxembhour, Belgium, Netherlands, UK, Ireland, Germany, Switzerland, Leichtenstein, Austria, Italy, San Marino, Vatican City, Malta.

Northern Europe: Iceland, Ireland, United Kingdom, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland.

Southern Europe: Portugal, Spain, Andorra, Malta, Italy, Vatican City, San Marino, Greece, Cyprus. Maybe Turkey, Possibly FYRs, Albania, Romania and Bulgaria.

Central Europe: Germany, Switzerland, Leichtenstein, Austria, Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Poland. Maybe Norway, Sweden and Denmark.

Eastern Europe: Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Albania, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova, Ukraine, Belarus. Maybe Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan; possibly Turkey; conceivably Greece, Cyprus.

[Ban my account ffs!]

It depends on the context. 

Simply Geographical:
Northern Europe:  U.K, Ireland, Scandinavia, the Baltic states
Western Europe:  France, Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands
Central Europe:  Germany, Switzerland, northern Italy, Austria, Liechtenstein, Czech Republic, Poland
Eastern Europe:  Hungary, Romania, Belarus, Slovakia, Moldova, Ukraine, Bulgaria
Southern Europe:  Central/Southern Italy, southern France, Spain, Portugal, Andorra, Greece, the little iddy biddy countries nobody remembers.
Southeastern Europe:  Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia (I'm tempted to put this in central Europe), Montenegro, Macedonia, Albania

Including political and cultural context from an American perspective:

Northern Europe:  Scandinavia, the U.K., Ireland
Western Europe:  France, Belgium, the Netherlands, former West Germany, Luxembourg, Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, the U.K., Ireland
Southern Europe:  Portugal, Spain, Andorra, Italy, Greece
Eastern Europe:  The former Soviet satellites.
Southeastern Europe:  The former Yugoslavia

[Bo]

I just typically classify Europe into two parts. So Eastern Europe would be any former Communist country, in addition to Turkey, Cyprus, Greece, and Finland. Everything else would be Western Europe. If you want to use a North-South definition, Southern Europe would be Spain, Portugal, Italy, the former Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey, and Cyprus. Everything else would be Northern Europe. For Central Europe, I'd say Germany, Poland, Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia. As you see, there is a lot of overlap here.

[Gustaf]

As a European, I'd make a couple of observations:

1. Luxembourg is not Northern Europe. Neither is Belgium.
2. Sweden and Norway are not Central Europe. There is a case for putting Denmark there (and also for Poland and Slovakia which I personally didn't include) but not for those two.

[Bunwahaha [still dunno why, but well, so be it]]

oh, depends...

Anyhow, I mainly clicked on 'Reply' to say, please, think to resize the stuffs, people. It's unpleasant threads like that.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Poland is definitively Central Europe, not Eastern. But not Western either.

[Gustaf]

Poland is definitively Central Europe, not Eastern. But not Western either.

Not "definitively". I can assure you that everyone in Sweden regards Poland as Eastern Europe.

[CultureKing]

Poland is definitively Central Europe, not Eastern. But not Western either.

Not "definitively". I can assure you that everyone in Sweden regards Poland as Eastern Europe.

And most people in the US.

[jeron]

Poland is definitively Central Europe, not Eastern. But not Western either.

Not "definitively". I can assure you that everyone in Sweden regards Poland as Eastern Europe.

And most people in the US.

Poland is generally regarded as Eastern Europe. I have also seen people include the Benelux and/or UK in northern Europe. From a Dutch perspective, Northern Europe is usually described as Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Iceland.

[Хahar 🤔]

Poland is definitively Central Europe, not Eastern. But not Western either.

No, you drink wódka. That makes you Eastern.

[opebo]

Like this map (I hope this works):

All the green is Western Europe, as is Scandinavia (blue).  The lighter green is the 'southern Europe'.  But Southern Europe and Scandinavia are definitely part of 'Western Europe', just not the core part which is GB, France, Germany, etc.

And brown is eastern Europe.

[opebo]

Wow taht worked so nice I'll make another - 'Central Europe':

[GMantis]

Western Europe - British Isles, France, Benelux, Germany, Alpine countries
Southern Europe - Iberian Peninsula, Italy, Former Yugoslavia, Albania, Greece, Malta
Central Europe - Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary
Northern Europe - Scandinavian countries, Baltic countries
Eastern Europe - Romania, Bulgaria, the remaining European parts of the former Soviet Union

However, it's more useful to have an additional category - Southeastern Europe, which includes all of former Yugoslavia except Slovenia, Albania, Greece, Bulgaria and Romania.
Some of these countries can be included in more than on category, of course. The British Isles are to some extent Northern Europe, Slovenia - Central Europe, Germany and the Alpine countries - also Central Europe, though this is outdated.

[GMantis]

Wow taht worked so nice I'll make another - 'Central Europe':

This map clearly shows that Croatia is not really part of Central Europe.