The Seven Continents and Major World Regions

A continent is one of Earth’s seven very large continuous land masses: Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe and Australia/Oceania, and world regions are smaller groupings of countries that share location, history, culture or economy. In brief: Asia is the largest continent by area (about 44.6 million km²), and Australia/Oceania is the smallest. The number and the names of continents depend on the model used (some count six, five or four), and the boundary between Europe and Asia is a convention, not a sea. Major world regions, such as Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia or Latin America, are used to study human and physical geography at a scale between continent and country.

The continents are the largest divisions of land on the map, and knowing their size, position and main features is the foundation of world geography. This guide describes each continent, explains how regions are defined, compares the continents in a table, works through size comparisons, outlines the history of the concept and corrects common mistakes.

What are the continents?

Continents are defined by a mixture of geography and convention. Most English-language sources use a seven-continent model; other models combine North and South America into “America” (six continents), Europe and Asia into “Eurasia”, or Europe, Asia and Africa into “Afro-Eurasia”. Continents are usually surrounded by oceans, but Europe and Asia share a single land mass, and North and South America are joined by the Isthmus of Panama (now cut by the Panama Canal). The continental shelf, the submerged edge of a continent, is part of the continent geologically, so the geological continents are larger than the land areas shown on maps. Islands near a continent are usually assigned to it (for example, Greenland to North America, Madagascar to Africa).

What are the main features of each continent?

• Asia: the largest and most populous continent, and the home of the highest mountains (the Himalayas, with Mount Everest at about 8,849 m), the world’s largest plateau (the Tibetan Plateau), great rivers (Yangtze, Ganges, Mekong) and climates from arctic to equatorial.
• Africa: straddles the equator; includes the Sahara (the largest hot desert), the Nile, the Congo basin rainforest, the Rift Valley and Kilimanjaro (about 5,895 m).
• North America: includes the Rocky Mountains, the Great Plains, the Great Lakes, Canada’s boreal forests, Greenland and Central America; Denali (about 6,190 m) is the highest peak.
• South America: the Andes (the longest continental mountain range, with Aconcagua at about 6,960 m), the Amazon basin (the largest rainforest and river by volume), the Atacama Desert and the pampas.
• Antarctica: the coldest, driest and windiest continent, covered by an ice sheet about 2 km thick on average, with no permanent human population; governed by the Antarctic Treaty (1959).
• Europe: a continent with a long coastline relative to its area, from the Atlantic to the Ural Mountains; the Alps, the North European Plain and a large number of countries; Mount Elbrus (about 5,642 m) is the highest peak by the usual definition.
• Australia/Oceania: the mainland of Australia (mostly arid, with the Great Barrier Reef offshore) together with New Zealand and the Pacific islands of Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia.

What are major world regions?

A region is a group of countries (or parts of countries) that share similar features. Geographers and organizations such as the United Nations define regions in different ways, so the lists vary. Common examples: North America, Latin America and the Caribbean, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North Africa and the Middle East (Southwest Asia), Sub-Saharan Africa, Central Asia, South Asia, East Asia, Southeast Asia, and Oceania. Regions are useful for comparing patterns, such as population growth, income, climate or culture, but their borders are partly a matter of definition, and they hide variety within the region.

Continents compared

Worked example: comparing continents

1. Total area: 44.6 + 30.4 + 24.2 + 17.8 + 14.2 + 10.2 + 8.5 = 149.9 million km², close to the standard figure of about 149 million km² for all land (the differences come from rounding and from the treatment of islands).
2. Share of Asia: 44.6 ÷ 149.9 = 29.8 percent, about 30 percent, or nearly one-third of all land.
3. Asia and Africa together: (44.6 + 30.4) ÷ 149.9 = 50.0 percent. Half of the world’s land is in just two continents.
4. Asia compared with Europe: 44.6 ÷ 10.2 = 4.4, so Asia is about 4.4 times as large as Europe.
5. Antarctica: 14.2 ÷ 149.9 = 9.5 percent of land, so it is larger than Europe and Australia/Oceania, although it is largely covered by ice.
6. If Americas are counted as one: 24.2 + 17.8 = 42.0 million km², which is 28 percent of the land and would make it a close second to Asia in area.

How did the continent concept develop?

The ancient Greeks divided the known world into Europe, Asia and Libya (Africa), separated by the Mediterranean and the Black Sea and rivers such as the Don or the Nile. After the voyages of Columbus and others, the “New World” was added as America, and Australia and Antarctica were recognized as continents in the 18th and 19th centuries. The Europe–Asia boundary, usually placed along the Ural Mountains, the Ural River and the Caucasus, was set by European geographers in the 18th century. Today, the number of continents differs between regions and traditions, and no single international body decides it.

Which mistakes are common?

Mistake 1: Thinking that there is one official number of continents

Seven is common in English-speaking countries, but six or five are used elsewhere, depending on the model.

Mistake 2: Confusing a continent with a country or a region

A continent is a vast land mass, a country is a political unit, and a region is a group of areas that share characteristics.

Mistake 3: Assuming Europe is separated from Asia by water

They form one land mass (Eurasia). The boundary follows mountains and rivers by convention.

Mistake 4: Judging the size of continents from a Mercator map

The Mercator projection enlarges areas near the poles, so Africa looks much smaller than it is compared to Greenland or Europe. Use areas given in km².