Western Asia

Western Asia
Area	6,255,160 sq km (2,415,131 sq mi)a
Population  • Density	313,428,000a  50.1/km2 (130/sq mi)
Countries	14–19  Armeniad  Azerbaijand  Bahrain  Cyprusd  Georgiad  Iranc  Iraq  Israel  Jordan  Kuwait  Lebanon  Oman  Palestine  Qatar  Saudi Arabia  Syria  Turkey  UAE  Yemen
Nominal GDP	$2.742 trillion (2010)b
GDP per capita	$8748 (2010)b
Time zones	UTC+2 to UTC+4:30
Notes a Area and population figures include the  UN subregion and Sinai. b GDP figures include the UN subregion. c Iran is not part of the UN subregion d countries in the UN subregion but universally included in the term "West Asia".

Western Asia, West Asia, Southwestern Asia or Southwest Asia is the westernmost subregion of Asia. The concept is in limited use, as it significantly overlaps with the Middle East (or Near East), the main difference being the exclusion of Egypt (which would be counted as part of North Africa). The term is sometimes used for the purposes of grouping countries in statistics.

The total population of Western Asia is estimated at about 300 million as of 2015.

In an unrelated context, the term is also used in ancient history and archaeology to divide the Fertile Crescent into the "Asiatic" or "Western Asian" cultures as opposed to ancient Egypt.

As a geographic concept, "Western Asia" includes the Levant, Mesopotamia, the Arabian peninsula, Anatolia, Iran, Armenian Highlands and South Caucasus. The Sinai Peninsula belongs to Western Asia, making Egypt a transcontinental country.

However, the term "Western Asia" is mostly used as a convenient division of contemporary sovereign states into a manageable number of world regions for statistical purposes; it is sometimes used instead of the more geopolitical term "Middle East", for example by the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) statistics office or Canada's government.