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 be called the "Oriental Hemisphere", and may in addition be used in a cultural or geopolitical sense as a synonym for the European term, "Old World".
Geography The boundary line between the Western and Eastern Hemispheres is an almost perfect circle (the Earth is an oblate spheroid, i.e. wider around the equator). The position of this boundary line must be an arbitrary 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 precisely correspond with continents. Portions of Western Europe, West Africa, Oceania, and extreme northeastern Russia are in the Western Hemisphere, in contrast to the split between the "Old World" and the "New World" or the Americas.
Alternatively, meridians of 20°W and the diametrically opposed 160°E are sometimes used outside of matters of physics and navigation.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."Eastern Hemisphere". Merriam-Webster's Geographical Dictionary, 3rd ed. 2001. Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, Inc., p. 340. This arrangement is preferred by some since it includes all of the European and African mainlands as part of the Eastern Hemisphere. However, it 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's two main islands). Prior to the global adoption of standard time, numerous prime meridians were decreed by various countries where time was defined by local noon.
The Indian Ocean is the only ocean located entirely in the Eastern Hemisphere. 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 .
The land mass of the Eastern Hemisphere is larger than that of the Western Hemisphere and has a wide variety of habitats. The center of all the land of the Eastern Hemisphere (excluding Antarctica) has been located at in southern Afghanistan. Even though Russia has the largest amount of total land in the Eastern Hemisphere, the largest country entirely in the Eastern Hemisphere is China at 9,596,961 km2. Countries in the Eastern Hemisphere 18 independent countries entirely in the Eastern Hemisphere have no land borders with other countries: Australia, Comoros, Federated States of Micronesia, Japan, Madagascar, Maldives, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Nauru, Palau, Philippines, São Tomé and Príncipe, Seychelles, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. Fiji, Kiribati and New Zealand, which have land in both the Eastern and Western Hemisphere, are also borderless countries, while Brunei, Cyprus, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Timor-Leste are considered divided island countries, as they have land borders. The United Kingdom is another divided island country, though most of the country is in the Western Hemisphere. Bahrain and Singapore have no natural land borders, but are connected to Saudi Arabia and Malaysia by man-made bridges and causeways.
39 of Africa's 54 independent countries are entirely in the Eastern Hemisphere: the five largest are DR Congo at 2,345,409 km2, Sudan at 1,886,068 km2, Libya at 1,759,541 km2, Chad at 1,280,000 km2 and Niger at 1,267,000 km2.Political Handbook of the World 2024-2025. United States, SAGE Publications, 2025.
When Sudan and South Sudan split into separate countries in 2011, Algeria became the largest country in Africa at 2,381,741 km2, and it straddles the prime meridian, with the greater proportion of its land being east of the prime meridian. Aside from Algeria, four additional African countries have land in both the Eastern and Western Hemispheres, and another ten are entirely in the Western Hemisphere.
34 of Europe's 44 independent countries are entirely in the Eastern Hemisphere, and besides Russia, all countries associated with the Eastern Europe region are entirely in the Eastern Hemisphere. Seven European countries are partially in the Eastern Hemisphere, and three are entirely in the Western Hemisphere (those being Iceland, Ireland and Portugal). The five largest European countries entirely in the Eastern Hemisphere are Ukraine at 603,628 km2, Sweden at 450,295 km2, Germany at 357,022 km2, Finland at 338,455 km2 and Poland at 312,696 km2. Norway is larger than Germany, Finland and Poland at 385,207 km2, though it has land in the Western Hemisphere, as the remote island of Jan Mayen is west of the prime meridian. Mainland France straddles the prime meridian, but the majority of the country's 543,940 km2 total land area in Europe is east of the prime meridian. The majority of Spain's 506,030 km2 total land area is west of the prime meridian.
Most Polynesian islands are entirely in the Western Hemisphere, including the countries of Samoa and Tonga and various semi-independent territories. However, no countries or territories in the neighboring regions of Melanesia and Micronesia are entirely in the Western Hemisphere, and only Fiji (Melanesia) and Kiribati (Micronesia) have any land in the Western Hemisphere.
Temperature records Low temperatures The majority of Antarctica's lowest recorded temperatures have been recorded in the larger Eastern Hemisphere portion. The lowest temperature ever recorded in the Eastern Hemisphere and the Southern Hemisphere was a −89.2 °C (−128.6 °F) reading at Antarctica's Vostok Station on July 21, 1983. This is also the lowest temperature ever recorded on earth. Outside of Antarctica, the lowest temperature ever recorded in the Western Hemisphere was a −69.6°C (−93.3°F) reading at the Klinck Automatic Weather Station in Greenland on December 22, 1991. This is also the lowest temperature ever recorded in the Northern Hemisphere. Byrd Automatic Weather Station is situated in the Western Hemisphere portion of Antarctica and recorded a −64.4 °C (−83.9 °F) reading on July 18, 1985. High temperatures The 56.7°C (134°F) temperature recorded in Death Valley, California on July 10, 1913 is the highest temperature ever recorded in the Northern Hemisphere and also in the Western Hemisphere. It is also the highest temperature ever recorded on earth. A 55.0°C (131°F) temperature recorded in Kebili, Tunisia, on July 7, 1931 is the second highest temperature ever recorded on Earth, and the highest in the Eastern Hemisphere. However, some weather historians question its accuracy. A 1922 reading of 58 °C (136.4 °F) in El Azizia, Libya, was long cited as the world record before the World Meteorological Organization decertified it in 2012 due to measurement errors.https://www.reuters.com/article/markets/commodities/hot-story-libya-loses-temperature-record-to-death-valley-idUSL5E8KD8S3/ The Southern Hemisphere's highest recorded temperature is tied at 50.7 °C (123.3 °F) between Oodnadatta, South Australia on January 2, 1960 and Onslow, Western Australia on January 13, 2022.
The Italian island of Sicily is east of the prime meridian and recorded a 48.8°C (119.8°F) temperature on August 11, 2021, the highest associated with Europe. Mitribah, Kuwait recorded a temperature of 53.9°C (129.0°F) on July 21, 2016, which briefly became the highest associated with Asia and the entirety of Eurasia. Ahvaz, Iran recorded a 54°C (129.2°F) temperature on June 29, 2017, which remains the current record for Asia and Eurasia.
Zoology Animals exclusively occurring in the Eastern Hemisphere include those associated with regions such as Australasia, East Asia, South Asia and Southeast Asia, like kangaroos, kiwis, koalas, pandas, orangutans and various species of tigers. Some African animals such as chimpanzees occur both east and west of the prime meridian in Africa, although giraffes, gorillas and zebras only occur in the Eastern Hemisphere portion. Bald eagles, the national symbol of the United States, can on rare occasion be found in the Eastern Hemisphere towards the end of Alaska's Aleutian Islands chain, which stretches across the North Pacific Ocean. While penguins are nearly exclusive to Antarctic-influenced regions of the Southern Hemisphere, they are widely found in both the Eastern and Western Hemispheres. Likewise, polar bears, which are exclusive to Arctic-influenced regions of the Northern Hemisphere, can be found in both the Eastern and Western Hemispheres.Prestrud, Paul, and Ian Sterling. "The International Polar Bear Agreement and the current status of polar bear conservation." Aquatic Mammals 20 (1994): 113-113.
Oceanography Atlantic The open Atlantic Ocean lies predominantly in the Western Hemisphere. One of the few Atlantic islands in the Eastern Hemisphere is Bouvet Island, a remote Norwegian volcanic island at 54°S 3°E in the southern Atlantic; it is one of the most isolated islands on earth and is largely covered by glaciers. The Mediterranean Sea, a marginal sea of the North Atlantic, is almost entirely in the Eastern Hemisphere, and some of its major islands include the Balearic Islands, Corsica, Crete, Malta, Sardinia and Sicily. Malta occupies a position between Sicily and the North African nations of Libya and Tunisia. Malta and Sicily are both geologically part of the African Plate rather than the Eurasian Plate. All of these islands are commonly grouped as Mediterranean islands rather than being grouped with open Atlantic islands.
Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean's islands range from large continental landmasses to coral atolls and volcanic islands. The continental Madagascar lies off southeastern Africa, while Sri Lanka lies just south of India. Like Australia, Madagascar has many endemic animals, owing to its unique geological history. Further into the Indian Ocean are islands of volcanic geological origin. These include Mauritius, the Maldives, Réunion, the Kerguelen Islands and Australia's remote Heard Island and McDonald Islands, which contains Australia's only active volcano. Heard Island and McDonald Islands and the Kerguelen Islands are surrounded by cold sub-Antarctic waters, but are well north of Antarctica. The Cocos (Keeling) Islands are low coral atolls of volcanic origin, while Christmas Island is the emergent summit of a submarine mountain with a narrow fringing reef. The Seychelles are particularly diverse, with ancient granitic islands in the Inner Islands and low coralline islands in the Outer Islands, rather than forming a single volcanic chain like Mauritius. The volcanic North Sentinel Island is part of India's wider Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and is known for its hostile native population, who have had virtually no contact with the outside world since the earliest documentation of the island. The language and culture of the North Sentinelese are considered to be almost entirely unknown to outsiders.
Pacific