Australia and Oceania.

Main economic-geographical regions of the world.

A complex set of social, economic, cultural, political criteria is usually used to classify the geographical regions. The regions are distinct in terms of size, population, development, potential of growth. Some are representative for the recent industrialization (south East Asia), others for economic and human backwardness (sub-Saharan Africa), others for economic supremacy and political hegemony (North America) or others for profound and radical transformations in the recent years (Eastern Europe and former Soviet Union). Due to the macro-scale of analysis, the most important criterion is general functionally; the uniqueness and homogeneity come second. The typology of main regions of the world is based on a macro-economic indicator, GDP per capita, that sets apart eight regions: North America, Latin America and the Caribbean, Western Europe, Eastern Europe and Russian Federation, North Africa and Southwest Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, Southeastern and Pacific Asia, Australia and Oceania.

Australia and Oceania represent an economic region made of Australia, New Zealand, and the archipelagos of Melanesia, Polynesia and Micronesia, characterized by a relative isolation from the major cores of the world economy. Despite this, Australia, although populated mainly along the shores is developed country. Mineral and energetic resources are important: coal,