Continents of the world
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The document provides an overview of the world's continents, describing their sizes, populations, geographical locations, and characteristics. It identifies seven commonly recognized continents: Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia, noting key statistics and facts about each. Overall, it highlights the diversity and significance of these land masses in terms of human population and geological features.
Continents of the world
- 2. “Continents are understood to be large, continuous, discrete masses of land, ideally separated by expanses of water. They are generally identified by convention rather than any strict criteria, with up to seven regions commonly regarded as continents. These are—from largest in size to smallest: Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia. In geology, continents are described by means of tectonic plates. Plate tectonics is the process and study of the movement, collision and division of continents, earlier known as continental drift.
- 4. Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and comprises 30% of its land area. With approximately 4.3 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population. Asia has a high growth rate in the modern era.
- 6. Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most- populous continent. At about 30.2 million km (11.7 million sq mi) including adjacent islands, it covers six percent of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4 percent of the total land area. With 1.1 billion people as of 2013, it accounts for approximately 15% of the world's human population. The continent is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, both the Suez Canal and the Red Sea along the Sinai Peninsula to the northeast, the Indian Ocean to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. The continent includes Madagascar and various archipelagoes. It has 54 fully recognized sovereign states ("countries"), 9 territories and two de facto independent states with limited or no recognition.
- 8. North America is the third largest continent by area . It is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the west and south by the Pacific Ocean, and to the southeast by South America and the Caribbean Sea. North America covers an area of about 24,709,000 square kilometers about 4.8% of the planet's surface or about 16.5% of its land area. As of July 2008, its population was estimated at nearly 529 million people across 23 independent states, representing about 7.5% of the human population. Most of the continent's land area is dominated by Canada, the United States, and Mexico, while smaller states exist in the Central American and Caribbean regions
- 10. South America is a continent located in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east by the Atlantic Ocean. It includes twelve sovereign states Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Pa raguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay, and Venezuela – and two nonsovereign areas – French Guiana, an overseas region of France, and the Falkland Islands, a British Overseas Territory. South America has an area of 17,840,000 sq km and population as of 2005 has been estimated at more than 371,090,000.
- 12. Antarctica is Earth's southernmost continent, containing the geographic South Pole. It is situated in the Antarctic region of the Southern Hemisphere, almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle, and is surrounded by the Southern Ocean. At 14.0 million km2 (5.4 million sq mi), it is the fifth-largest continent in areaThere are no permanent human residents, but anywhere from 1,000 to 5,000 people reside throughout the year at the research stations scattered across the continent. Only cold-adapted organisms survive, including many types of algae, bacteria, fungi, plants, protista, and certain animals, such as mites, nematodes, penguins, seals and tardigrades. Vegetation where it occurs is tundra.
- 14. Europe is the world's second-smallest continent by surface area, covering about 10,180,000 square kilometers (3,930,000 sq mi) or 2% of the Earth's surface and about 6.8% of its land area. Europe has approximately 50 countries and is is the third- most populous continent after Asia and Africa, with a population of 733 million or about 11% of the world's population. Europe is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and the Black Sea and connected waterways to the southeast.
- 16. It is the smallest of the seven traditional continents. Australia is a continent comprising mainland Australia, Tasmania, New Guinea, Seram, possibly Timor, and neighboring islands. The continent of Australia lies on a continental shelf overlain by shallow seas which divide it into several landmasses — the Arafura Sea and Torres Strait between mainland Australia and New Guinea, and Bass Strait between mainland Australia and Tasmania With a total land area of 8,560,000 square kilometers (3,310,000 sq mi), the Australian continent is the smallest and lowest-lying human-inhabited continent on Earth.