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Continents

A continent is one of several very large landmasses on Earth. Generally identified by convention rather than any strict criteria, up to seven regions are commonly regarded as continents. Ordered from largest in size to smallest, they are: Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia. In geology, areas of continental crust include regions covered with water.

Islands are frequently grouped with a neighbouring continent to divide all the world's land into geopolitical regions. Under this scheme, most of the island countries and territories in the Pacific Ocean are grouped together with the continent of Australia to form a geopolitical region called Oceania which replaces the continent of Australia.

By convention, "continents are understood to be large, continuous, discrete masses of land, ideally separated by expanses of water." Many of the seven most commonly recognized continents identified by convention are not discrete landmasses separated completely by water. The criterion "large" leads to arbitrary classification: Greenland, with a surface area of 2,166,086 square kilometres (836,330 sq mi) is considered the world's largest island, while Australia, at 7,617,930 square kilometres (2,941,300 sq mi) is deemed the smallest continent.

The Earth's major landmasses all have coasts on a single, continuous world ocean, which is divided into a number of principal oceanic components by the continents and various geographic criteria.

The most restricted meaning of continent is that of a continuous area of land or mainland, with the coastline and any land boundaries forming the edge of the continent. In this sense the term continental Europe (sometimes referred to in Britain as "the Continent") is used to refer to mainland Europe, excluding islands such as Great Britain, Ireland, Malta and Iceland, and the term continent of Australia may refer to the mainland of Australia, excluding Tasmania and New Guinea. Similarly, the continental United States refers to the 48 contiguous states in central North America and may include Alaska in the northwest of the continent (the two being separated by Canada), while excluding Hawaii in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.


Models
Continents vide couleurs.png
Color-coded map showing the various continents. Similar shades exhibit areas that may be consolidated or subdivided.
Four continents     Afro-Eurasia    America   Antarctica   Oceania
Five continents
   Africa    Eurasia    America   Antarctica   Oceania
Six continents   Africa   Europe   Asia    America   Antarctica   Oceania
Six continents
   Africa    Eurasia   North America   South America   Antarctica   Oceania
Seven continents
   Africa   Europe   Asia   North America   South America   Antarctica   Oceania
Continent Area (km²)
 Area (mi²)
 Percent
total
landmass
 Population Percent
total pop.		 Most populous
city (proper)
Africa 30,370,000 11,730,000 20.4% 1,186,178,000 16.1% Lagos, Nigeria
Antarctica 13,720,000 5,300,000 9.2% 4,490 0.0% McMurdo Station
Asia 43,820,000 16,920,000 29.5% 4,393,296,000 59.8% Shanghai, China
Europe 10,180,000 3,930,000 6.8% 738,442,000 10.0% Moscow, Russia
North America 24,490,000 9,460,000 16.5% 573,777,000 7.8% Mexico City, Mexico
Oceania 9,008,500 3,478,200 5.9% 39,331,000 0.5% Sydney, Australia
South America 17,840,000 6,890,000 12.0% 418,447,000 5.7% São Paulo, Brazil
Continent Highest point Elevation (m) Elevation (ft) Country or territory containing highest point Lowest point Elevation (m) Elevation (ft) Country or territory containing lowest point
Asia Mount Everest 8,848 29,029 China and Nepal Dead Sea −427 −1,401 Israel and Jordan
South America Aconcagua 6,960 22,830 Argentina Laguna del Carbón −105 −344 Argentina
North America Denali 6,198 20,335 United States Death Valley † −86 −282 United States
Africa Mount Kilimanjaro 5,895 19,341 Tanzania Lake Assal −155 −509 Djibouti
Europe Mount Elbrus 5,642 18,510 Russia Caspian Sea −28 −92 Russia
Antarctica Vinson Massif 4,892 16,050 (none) Deep Lake, Vestfold Hills † −50 −160 (none)
Australia Puncak Jaya 4,884 16,024 Indonesia (Papua) Lake Eyre −15 −49 Australia

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