| This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Western Hemisphere article. This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject. |
Article policies |
| Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL |
| Archives: 1 |
 | This  level-5 vital article is rated Start-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.It is of interest to the following WikiProjects: |
What is the population of the Western Hemisphere, and any is it not included? 99.164.108.120 (talk) 05:01, 26 September 2010 (UTC) can the western hemisphere be defined through one country that has a philosophical opposition to universal health care? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 114.198.82.50 (talk) 12:15, 4 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]
It’s clear from the state of this talk page, that at best “Western hemisphere” is a highly confusing and ambiguous term; and at worst a term that is either unknown or positively disliked - especially by non-Americans. I personally wasn’t aware of it, until I came across an article about a plant species that was native to North and South America, and the Caribbean countries. Now whatever that is, it certainly is not “the Western Hemisphere”; and that term should never have been used. There is a very easy solution - don’t use it at all. If we are talking about specific regions such as the Americas, say “the Americas”. In the unlikely event we really are talking about the actual hemisphere of the globe that starts at Greenwich, London, and ends somewhere in the Pacific Ocean - then specify it. But you will also have to specify which west African, north European, Pacific countries it does or doesn’t include.
“Western Hemisphere” is a meaningless, useless term which, I suspect, has been erected purely for political purposes. Darorcilmir (talk) 15:59, 11 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]
The definition used by Wikipedia is incongruent with the primary definition used in most English language dictionaries. They generally define the western hemisphere as the Americas with surrounding islands and waters. It is cultural and broad geographic concept, not a mathematical one. As such it is silly to imagine that points in the UK, Europe, or Africa that lie west of London are sharply distinguished from those that lie to the east. To the extent that longitude is used as a rough boundary, dictionaries usually suggested 20 degrees west to 160 degrees east, an offset of 20 degrees from the Prime Meridian. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:980:C000:2E30:D532:5A98:A79C:C92A (talk) 14:36, 5 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I observe that while Northern and Southern Hemisphere definitions are based on physical attributes, the equator is a demarcation with some intrinsic validity, the division of western and eastern hemisphere is arbitrary, and by convention, as alluded to in the article. Drsruli (talk) 22:06, 7 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Please include the population information. (We could also mention the land area, and contrast with Eastern Hemisphere.)
Drsruli (talk) 22:03, 7 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]
