Asia
Asia is the largest of the Earth's seven continents. With outlying islands, it covers an estimated 44,936,000 km² (17,350,000 sq miles), or about one-third of the world's total land area. Its population is still growing and accounts for at least 60% of the world's population; in the early 1990s Asia had more than 3.4 billion inhabitants, but by 2025 this had frown to 4.7 billion.
Lying almost entirely in the northern hemisphere, Asia is bounded on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the Bering Strait and the Pacific Ocean, on the south by the Indian Ocean, and on the south-west by the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea.
In the west, the conventional boundary between Europe and Asia is drawn at the Ural Mountains, continuing south along the Ural River to the Caspian Sea, then west along the Caucasus Mountains to the Black Sea and the Turkish straits. A commonly accepted division between Asia and Africa is placed at the Suez Canal.
Many geographers prefer to regard the land mass formed by Europe and Asia as a single continent-Eurasia.
The continental mainland stretches from the southern end of the Malay Peninsula to Cape Chelyuskin in Siberia. Its westernmost point is Cape Baba in north-western Turkey, and its easternmost point is Cape Dezhnyov in north-eastern Siberia. The continent's greatest width from east to west is about 8,500 km (5,300 mi).
Both the lowest and highest points on the Earth's surface are located in Asia, namely: the shore of the Dead Sea (395 m/1,296 ft below sea level) and Mount Everest (8,848 m/29,028 ft above sea level).
The continent features a wide variety of climates including the equatorial south; hot deserts in parts of West Asia, Central Asia and South Asia; temperate areas in the east and the continental center and huge subarctic and polar expanses in North Asia.
China and India have been the world's largest economies from 1 to 1800, after which western powers started dominating. Nowadays China ranks as the world's second-largest economy, after the United States.
Most of the world's religions have their root in Asia, including Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam, Jainism, Judaism, Sikhism, Taoism and Zoroastrianism, amongst others. Asia is home to a wide variety of ethnic and cultural different groups.
To the south-east of mainland Asia are several archipelagos and islands, extending east to Oceania. They include the islands of Indonesia and the Philippines, including Sumatra, Java, Celebes (Sulawesi), Borneo and New Guinea. To the north lie Taiwan, the islands of Japan and Sakhalin. Sri Lanka and smaller island groups such as the Maldives and the Andaman and Nicobar islands lie in the Indian Ocean.
Countries in Asia
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