---
title: "Regional distribution"
description: "Understand your global traffic patterns with geographic distribution analytics showing requests, bandwidth and cache performance by region."
url: "https://edge.network/docs/cdn/geo-distribution"
section: "CDN"
---

# Regional distribution

Visualise your CDN traffic distribution across global regions to understand where your audience is located and how content performs in different geographies.

## Geographic analytics

The **Geo Distribution** tab in your CDN deployment dashboard provides a visual breakdown of traffic by geographic region. This data helps you understand global traffic patterns, identify key markets and optimise content delivery strategies.

![Interactive world map with regional traffic distribution](/media/docs/control-cdn-geo.svg)

## How regional data is collected

Regional distribution data is derived from the geographic location of the Edge CDN nodes serving your content, not from client IP geolocation. This approach provides accurate aggregate data without the overhead of per-request IP lookups.

> [!NOTE]
> **Server-based aggregation.** Traffic is attributed to the region where the CDN server is located. Since users are routed to their nearest edge node via anycast, this closely approximates the geographic distribution of your end users.

- **Low overhead:** no per-request IP geolocation lookups means zero latency impact on content delivery.
- **Aggregate insights:** regional data is designed for analytics and strategic planning, not individual request tracking.

## Global regions

Traffic is organised into seven major geographic regions. These regions align with how global internet traffic flows and how content delivery networks typically segment their infrastructure.

### North America

United States, Canada and Mexico. Features high traffic volume from dense urban centres and advanced infrastructure. Major internet exchange points include New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Toronto.

Key markets: USA, Canada, Mexico.

### Latin America

Central and South America. Growing mobile traffic and emerging markets with increasing internet penetration. Major hubs include São Paulo, Buenos Aires and Mexico City.

Key markets: Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Chile.

### Europe

Western, Eastern and Northern Europe. Strong regulatory focus, with GDPR influencing data handling. Major exchange points in London, Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Paris.

Key markets: UK, Germany, France, Netherlands.

### Middle East & Africa (MEA)

Middle East, North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa. Varied infrastructure with rapid growth in mobile adoption. Key markets include UAE, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and Nigeria.

Key markets: UAE, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Nigeria.

### East Asia & Southeast Asia

Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. Highly connected markets with sophisticated digital ecosystems. Major hubs in Singapore, Tokyo and Hong Kong.

Key markets: Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Indonesia.

### South Asia & Oceania

India, Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. Large and rapidly growing markets with diverse infrastructure. Key hubs in Sydney, Mumbai and Delhi.

Key markets: India, Australia, New Zealand.

### China

Mainland China is treated as a separate region due to its massive scale, unique regulatory environment (including the Great Firewall) and distinct infrastructure requirements. Delivery to China may require specific compliance and partnership considerations.

Key market: Mainland China.

## Metrics per region

Each region displays the following metrics, showing how your content performs around the world:

- **Traffic share:** the percentage of total requests originating from this region relative to your global traffic.
- **Requests:** total number of HTTP requests served to users in this region during the selected time period.
- **Bandwidth:** total data transferred to users in this region, helping identify bandwidth hotspots.
- **Cache hit rate:** percentage of requests served from cache in this region. Higher is better for performance and cost.

## Use cases

Regional distribution data enables several strategic and operational decisions:

- **Market analysis:** understand where your users are located and identify growing markets for business expansion.
- **Content strategy:** optimise content and assets for regions with the highest traffic and engagement.
- **Scheduling:** plan maintenance windows and deployments around regional peak traffic periods.
- **Compliance:** understand data flow patterns for regulatory compliance, such as GDPR in Europe.

## Time ranges

View regional distribution data across different time periods:

- Last hour
- Last 24 hours
- Last 7 days
- Last 30 days

**Data resolution:** minute-level data is available for the last 24 hours. Hourly aggregates are used for 7-day and 30-day views, providing efficient queries while maintaining analytical accuracy.

## Data retention

Regional distribution data follows the same retention policy as other CDN analytics:

| Data | Retention |
|---|---|
| Minute-level regional data | 24 hours |
| Hourly regional aggregates | 30 days |
| Daily regional aggregates | 1 year |

## Next steps

- [CDN analytics](/docs/cdn/analytics) — Full analytics overview
- [Caching](/docs/cdn/caching) — Optimise cache behaviour