First of all, you could as well have used the Arab World term and excluded some countries, just as you with the MENA term. Noting that the only common thing between the countries surveyed is the Arabic language, not the continent nor the economic standing etc.

Second and most important, you say “there are many citizens of North African countries that don’t consider themselves as Arab at all” and I just don’t believe you say that! So if “some” people in the EU don’t consider themselves Europeans, would you work on finding another name for the region? And did you ask yourself how many of us in the covered region don’t accept being called MENA people?

I am sorry but this is just skewed reasoning and we are not clear about its motives!

The Arab world is often taken as the League of Arab States, which also include Comoros, Djibouti, Mauritania, Somalia and Sudan (not covered in this report), plus Syria, which Facebook provides no data for as a country. Also, as a matter of fact, there are many citizens of North African countries that don’t consider themselves as Arab at all. So, there is an argument that says that the only recognised definition of the Arab world should be the Arab League.

As you noted, we had to be explicit about what countries were included in MENA, since some research reports have included Iran, Israel, Pakistan and Turkey in the Middle East for such reports and this has led to misleading figures being quoted in business and in the media. So, we’ve gone with a particular definition of Middle East & North Africa, mostly in an attempt to be clear about the area covered.