Tabla de Contenidos
There is no single criterion to define what a continent is. The term continent derives from a Latin word meaning to hold together, and from continent terra , a Roman term meaning continuous lands. In this sense, a first idea of a continent is that they are the land masses separated by great seas and oceans; By that definition, there are five continents: Africa, America, Antarctica, Eurasia, and Oceania.
Likewise, continents can be considered as a way of dividing the Earth into regions and other criteria such as large geographical accidents or cultural differences; then, Eurasia is usually divided into Europe and Asia. Only the inhabited continents can also be taken into account, in which case we are talking about five continents: Africa, America, Asia, Europe and Oceania. This is the division considered by the United Nations Organization (UNO) and are the continents represented in the five rings of the Olympic Games.
Without a clear criterion, English-speaking countries subdivide America into North America and South America, including Central America in North America, and instead of Oceania they consider only Australia, identifying the continent with the country with the highest size of that region. This is the classification adopted by the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA).
Although in several Spanish-speaking countries the regions of the Earth are usually classified into six continents, below we will see the surface and the population of the planet according to a division into seven continents: Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Asia, Europe and Oceania.
Africa
With 30 million square kilometers, Africa is the third largest continent after Asia and America, or the second if America is divided in two . To the north, the Mediterranean Sea separates it from Europe; to the northeast, the Red Sea divides Asia from Africa; the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean surround the African continent.
Africa has a population of 1.3 billion inhabitants distributed in 54 autonomous countries, as well as some territories controlled by the European countries Spain, France, Italy and Portugal. It is the second most populous continent.
In Africa is the longest river in the world, the Nile. It is born in Sudan and after a journey of 6600 kilometers it flows into the Mediterranean Sea. Africa also contains the second largest lake, Lake Victoria, which has an area of 70,000 square kilometers.
North America
This continent, or subcontinent depending on the classification we choose, is the third largest on the planet, with 24.5 million square kilometers . It extends from the Arctic Ocean and Alaska in the north, separated from Asia by the Bering Strait, and reaches Panama; in the south it limits with Colombia and various islands in the Caribbean Sea close to Venezuela. The oceans that frame this subcontinent are the Pacific to the west and the Atlantic to the east.
Regarding population, North America ranks fifth among the seven continents, with 370 million inhabitants . The country with the largest population in North America is the United States with 270 million inhabitants, followed by Mexico with 130 million. On the border between Canada and the United States is the largest lake in the world, Lake Superior, with an area of 82,100 square kilometers.
South America
In relation to its extension, South America is the fourth continent, with an area of 17.8 5 million square kilometers . To the north it limits with North America on the land border between Colombia and Panama, and on the Caribbean Sea; The South American subcontinent extends between the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean up to the Drake Passage, which separates it from Antarctica at the southern tip.
South America has 432 million inhabitants, which places it in fourth place in terms of population ; This population is distributed in 13 countries and a region controlled by France. With a length of 8,500 kilometers, the Andes mountain range is the longest mountain range in the world; It extends from western Venezuela to Tierra del Fuego, at the southern tip of South America.
Antarctica
The Antarctic continent has an area of 14 million square kilometers, which is why it ranks fifth in size. Antarctica is located on the Antarctic Circle, surrounded by the Southern Ocean. It does not have a stable population and the settlements are bases from different countries that house researchers, reaching about 4,400 people in summer and about 1,000 in winter. It is the coldest and driest continent on the planet: it is a desert of ice. The lowest temperature recorded was -89.2 o C; the average temperature in the coldest time of the year is -63 o C.
Asia
Asia is the largest continent on Earth, with an area of 44.6 million square kilometers. It borders Europe to the west and is surrounded by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Indian Ocean to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the east.
Asia is also the most populous continent, home to 4.6 billion people out of the 7.7 billion that inhabit the planet. The differences in the population of the territories are extreme: in South Asia there is a density of 270 inhabitants per square kilometer, while in the North the density is 100 times lower.
The Asian continent is made up of 49 countries, some of which have part of their territory in Europe, such as Russia and Turkey; Egypt has most of its territory in Africa but a part, the Sinai Peninsula, is in Asia. It also includes several states with limited recognition and two special administrative regions: Hong Kong and Macao.
Asia also boasts the highest site on Earth, Mount Everest in the Himalayas, which is located on the border between Nepal and China and is 8,850 meters above sea level. Asia also has the lowest point on the planet, the Dead Sea, a salt lake of about 800 square kilometers located 435 meters below sea level.
Europe
Europe has an extension of 10.5 million square kilometers, which is why it ranks sixth among the planet’s continents . The Ural Mountains, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains, the Black Sea, and the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits separate it from Asia to the east; the Mediterranean Sea is its border with Africa to the south, while to the west is the Atlantic Ocean and to the north, the Arctic Ocean. Europe has 746 million inhabitants, making it the third most populous continent.
Oceania
Oceania has an area of 8.5 million square kilometers; It is the smallest continent on Earth . It is made up of the continental shelf of Australia and a group of islands in the Pacific Ocean: New Guinea, New Zealand and the archipelagos of Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia. The population of Oceania is 41 million inhabitants, which is why it is also the continent with the smallest population on the planet, with the exception of the frozen continent.
Sources
- Antarctic Population 2020 . World Population Review.
- Continental and Region Populations 2020 . World Population Review.
- International Indicators: Population mid-2019 . Population Reference Bureau.
- The World Factbook: Russia . Central Intelligence Agency.
- The World Factbook: World . Central Intelligence Agency.
- World City Populations 2020 . World Population Review.
