Just How Big is Africa?
JUST HOW BIG IS AFRICA?
Africa is the world’s second-largest and second-most-populous continent. At about 30.2 million km² (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 about 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 archipelagos. It has 54 fully recognized sovereign states (“countries”), nine territories and two de facto independent states with limited or no recognition. As of 1993, African people used more than 800 languages and regional varieties of a language, or dialects. Source: Wikipedia.
Africa’s population is the youngest among all the continents; 50% of Africans are 19 years old or younger.
For a graphical idea of just how big Africa is, take look at the graphic below (with a little bit of effort you can stuff the UK into Madagascar):