The largest and most populous continent or region
is ASIA. It covers 8.7 percent of the Earth's total
surface area, or 29.8 percent of its land area,
and it contains more than 60 percent of the world's
human population.
After Asia, Africa is the world's second-largest
and second-most populous continent,. At about 30,300,000
km² (11,700,000 mi²) including adjacent
islands, it covers 5.9% of the Earth's total surface
area, and 20.3% of the total land area.[1] With
more than 840,000,000 people (as of 2005) in 61
territories, it accounts for more than 12% of the
world's human population.
Europe 6th largest continent It is actually a vast
peninsula of the great Eurasian land mass. Europe
is washed in the north by the Arctic Ocean, and
in the west by the Atlantic Ocean, with which the
North Sea and the Baltic Sea are connected.
NORTH AMERICA [North America] third largest continent
(1990 est. pop. 365,000,000), c.9,400,000 sq mi
(24,346,000 sq km), the northern of the two continents
of the Western Hemisphere. North America includes
all of the mainland and related offshore islands
lying N of the Isthmus of Panama (which connects
it with South America).
SOUTH AMERICA [South America] fourth largest continent
(1991 est. pop. 299,150,000), c.6,880,000 sq mi
(17,819,000 sq km), the southern of the two continents
of the Western Hemisphere. It is divided politically
into 12 independent countries— Argentina ,
Bolivia , Brazil , Chile , Colombia , Ecuador ,
Guyana , Paraguay , Peru , Suriname , Uruguay ,
and Venezuela —and the overseas department
of French Guiana.
The Australian continent has been inhabited for
over 42,000 years by Indigenous Australians. After
sporadic visits by fishermen from the north and
by European explorers and merchants starting in
the seventeenth century, the eastern half of the
continent was claimed by the British in 1770 and
officially settled through penal transportation
as the penal colony of New South Wales on 26 January
1788. As the population grew and new areas were
explored, another five largely self-governing Crown
Colonies were successively established over the
course of the nineteenth century.
