About 60 percent of the world’s population, about 4.3 billion people (2015 estimate), live in Asia.
Traditionally, East Asia consists of China, Japan, Korea, Mongolia and, occasionally, the Philippines.
South Asia traditionally consists of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
Southeast Asia (which is occasionally combined with East Asia) includes Burma (Myanmar), Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
In American usage, Asian is generally used to refer to the entire continent of Asia; often, however, Asian is used as shorthand for East Asians, or East and Southeast Asians. British usage generally treats the term Asian as referring to South Asia.
REFERENCE: AAJA Handbook to Covering Asian America