Africa

.
Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² (11.7 million sq mi) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area.^[2] With a billion people (as of 2009, see table) in 61 territories, it accounts for about 14.8% of the World's human population. The continent is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Suez Canal and the Red Sea to the northeast, the Indian Ocean to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. Not counting the disputed territory of Western Sahara, there are 53 countries, including Madagascar and various island groups, associated with the continent.

Africa

Area	30,221,532 km² (11,668,598.7 sq mi)
Population	922,011,000[1] (2005, 2nd)
Density	30.51/km² (about 80/sq mi)
Countries	53[show] Algeria Angola Benin Botswana Burkina Faso Burundi Cameroon Cape Verde Central African Republic Chad Comoros Congo Côte d'Ivoire Democratic Republic of the Congo Djibouti Egypt Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Ethiopia Gabon Gambia Ghana Guinea Guinea-Bissau Kenya Lesotho Liberia Libya Madagascar Malawi Mali Mauritania Mauritius Morocco Mozambique Namibia Niger Nigeria Rwanda São Tomé and Príncipe Senegal Seychelles Sierra Leone Somalia South Africa Sudan Swaziland Tanzania Togo Tunisia
Dependencies	7[show] Mayotte Réunion Canary Islands Ceuta Madeira Islands Melilla Saint Helena
Demonym	African
Languages	More than 1,000 indigenous African languages including several spoken by tens of millions such as Igbo, Swahili, Hausa, Amharic, and Yoruba; Plus Arabic, English, French, Portuguese, Afrikaans, Spanish, Indian languages, others
Time Zones	UTC-1 (Cape Verde) to UTC+4 (Mauritius)

Africa, particularly central eastern Africa, is widely regarded within the scientific community to be the origin of humans and the Hominidae tree (great apes), as evidenced by the discovery of the earliest hominids and their ancestors, as well as later ones that have been dated to around seven million years ago – including Sahelanthropus tchadensis, Australopithecus africanus, A. afarensis, Homo erectus, H. habilis and H. ergaster – with the earliest Homo sapiens (human) found in Ethiopia being dated to ca. 200,000 years ago.^[3]

Africa straddles the equator and encompasses numerous climate areas; it is the only continent to stretch from the northern temperate to southern temperate zones.

Geography

A composite satellite image of Africa (centre) with North America (left) and Eurasia (right) to scale

Africa is the largest of the three great southward projections from the largest landmass of the Earth. Separated from Europe by the Mediterranean Sea, it is joined to Asia at its northeast extremity by the Isthmus of Suez (transected by the Suez Canal), 163 km (101 miles) wide.^[43] (Geopolitically, Egypt's Sinai Peninsula east of the Suez Canal is often considered part of Africa, as well.)^[44] From the most northerly point, Ras ben Sakka in Tunisia (37°21' N), to the most southerly point, Cape Agulhas in South Africa (34°51'15" S), is a distance of approximately 8,000 km (5,000 miles);^[45] from Cape Verde, 17°33'22" W, the westernmost point, to Ras Hafun in Somalia, 51°27'52" E, the most easterly projection, is a distance of approximately 7,400 km (4,600 miles).^[46] The coastline is 26,000 km (16,100 miles) long, and the absence of deep indentations of the shore is illustrated by the fact that Europe, which covers only 10,400,000 km² (4,010,000 square miles) – about a third of the surface of Africa – has a coastline of 32,000 km (19,800 miles).^[46]

Africa's largest country is Sudan, and its smallest country is the Seychelles, an archipelago off the east coast.^[47] The smallest nation on the continental mainland is The Gambia.

Biomes of Africa (see world vegetation map for key)

According to the ancient Romans, Africa lay to the west of Egypt, while "Asia" was used to refer to Anatolia and lands to the east. A definite line was drawn between the two continents by the geographer Ptolemy (85–165 AD), indicating Alexandria along the Prime Meridian and making the isthmus of Suez and the Red Sea the boundary between Asia and Africa. As Europeans came to understand the real extent of the continent, the idea of Africa expanded with their knowledge.

Geologically, Africa includes the Arabian Peninsula; the Zagros Mountains of Iran and the Anatolian Plateau of Turkey mark where the African Plate collided with Eurasia. The Afrotropic ecozone and the Saharo-Arabian desert to its north unite the region biogeographically, and the Afro-Asiatic language family unites the north linguistically.

Climate, fauna, and flora

The climate of Africa ranges from tropical to subarctic on its highest peaks. Its northern half is primarily desert or arid, while its central and southern areas contain both savanna plains and very dense jungle (rainforest) regions. In between, there is a convergence where vegetation patterns such as sahel, and steppe dominate.

Africa boasts perhaps the world's largest combination of density and "range of freedom" of wild animal populations and diversity, with wild populations of large carnivores (such as lions, hyenas, and cheetahs) and herbivores (such as buffalo, deer, elephants, camels, and giraffes) ranging freely on primarily open non-private plains. It is also home to a variety of jungle creatures (including snakes and primates) and aquatic life (including crocodiles and amphibians)(see also: Fauna of Africa).

Territories and regions

The countries in this table are categorised according to the scheme for geographic subregions used by the United Nations, and data included are per sources in cross-referenced articles. Where they differ, provisos are clearly indicated.

Regions of Africa: Northern Africa Western Africa Middle Africa Eastern Africa Southern Africa

Physical map of Africa.

Satellite photo of Africa.

Political map of Africa (right-click to enlarge)

Name of region[64] and territory, with flag	Area (km²)	Population (2009 est) except where noted	Density (per km²)	Capital
Eastern Africa:	6,384,904	316,053,651	49.5
Burundi	27,830	8,988,091[65]	322.9	Bujumbura
Comoros	2,170	752,438[65]	346.7	Moroni
Djibouti	23,000	516,055[65]	22.4	Djibouti
Eritrea	121,320	5,647,168[65]	46.5	Asmara
Ethiopia	1,127,127	85,237,338[65]	75.6	Addis Ababa
Kenya	582,650	39,002,772[65]	66.0	Nairobi
Madagascar	587,040	20,653,556[65]	35.1	Antananarivo
Malawi	118,480	14,268,711[65]	120.4	Lilongwe
Mauritius	2,040	1,284,264[65]	629.5	Port Louis
Mayotte (France)	374	223,765[65]	489.7	Mamoudzou
Mozambique	801,590	21,669,278[65]	27.0	Maputo
Réunion (France)	2,512	743,981(2002)	296.2	Saint-Denis
Rwanda	26,338	10,473,282[65]	397.6	Kigali
Seychelles	455	87,476[65]	192.2	Victoria
Somalia	637,657	9,832,017[65]	15.4	Mogadishu
Tanzania	945,087	41,048,532[65]	43.3	Dodoma
Uganda	236,040	32,369,558[65]	137.1	Kampala
Zambia	752,614	11,862,740[65]	15.7	Lusaka
Zimbabwe	390,580	11,392,629[65]	29.1	Harare
Middle Africa:	6,613,253	121,585,754	18.4
Angola	1,246,700	12,799,293[65]	10.3	Luanda
Cameroon	475,440	18,879,301[65]	39.7	Yaoundé
Central African Republic	622,984	4,511,488[65]	7.2	Bangui
Chad	1,284,000	10,329,208[65]	8.0	N'Djamena
Congo	342,000	4,012,809[65]	11.7	Brazzaville
Democratic Republic of the Congo	2,345,410	68,692,542[65]	29.2	Kinshasa
Equatorial Guinea	28,051	633,441[65]	22.6	Malabo
Gabon	267,667	1,514,993[65]	5.6	Libreville
São Tomé and Príncipe	1,001	212,679[65]	212.4	São Tomé
Northern Africa:	8,533,021	211,087,622	24.7
Algeria	2,381,740	34,178,188[65]	14.3	Algiers
Egypt[66]	1,001,450	83,082,869[65] total, Asia 1.4m	82.9	Cairo
Libya	1,759,540	6,310,434[65]	3.6	Tripoli
Morocco	446,550	34,859,364[65]	78.0	Rabat
Sudan	2,505,810	41,087,825[65]	16.4	Khartoum
Tunisia	163,610	10,486,339[65]	64.1	Tunis
Western Sahara[67]	266,000	405,210[65]	1.5	El Aaiún
Spanish and Portuguese territories in Northern Africa:
Canary Islands (Spain)[68]	7,492	1,694,477(2001)	226.2	Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Santa Cruz de Tenerife
Ceuta (Spain)[69]	20	71,505(2001)	3,575.2	—
Madeira Islands (Portugal)[70]	797	245,000(2001)	307.4	Funchal
Melilla (Spain)[71]	12	66,411(2001)	5,534.2	—
Southern Africa:	2,693,418	56,406,762	20.9
Botswana	600,370	1,990,876[65]	3.3	Gaborone
Lesotho	30,355	2,130,819[65]	70.2	Maseru
Namibia	825,418	2,108,665[65]	2.6	Windhoek
South Africa	1,219,912	49,052,489[65]	40.2	Bloemfontein, Cape Town, Pretoria[72]
Swaziland	17,363	1,123,913[65]	64.7	Mbabane
Western Africa:	6,144,013	296,186,492	48.2
Benin	112,620	8,791,832[65]	78.0	Porto-Novo
Burkina Faso	274,200	15,746,232[65]	57.4	Ouagadougou
Cape Verde	4,033	429,474[65]	107.3	Praia
Côte d'Ivoire	322,460	20,617,068[65]	63.9	Abidjan,[73] Yamoussoukro
Gambia	11,300	1,782,893[65]	157.7	Banjul
Ghana	239,460	23,832,495[65]	99.5	Accra
Guinea	245,857	10,057,975[65]	40.9	Conakry
Guinea-Bissau	36,120	1,533,964[65]	42.5	Bissau
Liberia	111,370	3,441,790[65]	30.9	Monrovia
Mali	1,240,000	12,666,987[65]	10.2	Bamako
Mauritania	1,030,700	3,129,486[65]	3.0	Nouakchott
Niger	1,267,000	15,306,252[65]	12.1	Niamey
Nigeria	923,768	149,229,090[65]	161.5	Abuja
Saint Helena (UK)	410	7,637[65]	14.4	Jamestown
Senegal	196,190	13,711,597[65]	69.9	Dakar
Sierra Leone	71,740	6,440,053[65]	89.9	Freetown
Togo	56,785	6,019,877[65]	106.0	Lomé
Africa Total	30,368,609	1,001,320,281	33.0