Is Asia a Continent? C’mon People!

The world of search engine optimization is an interesting (disturbing) place. The goal is to align your content with what people are searching, so when they search for something, your content shows up. When we decided to do a piece on Asia, we embarked on a research mission to see what exactly people want to know about it. And this is what we found: Is Asia a continent?! For the record, the answer is—by convention—yes. To compensate for the questionable question, here are 10 statistics about the continent to nourish your brain.

 

4.6 billion

The approximate population of Asia. As mentioned previously, that figure amounts to about 60 percent of the world’s population.

 

31

The median age of the population on the Asian continent, tied for second youngest with South America. Africa is the youngest at 18 years, while Europe is the oldest at 42 years.

 

17.2 million

The approximate land area in square miles of Asia. That’s good for first place among continents and amounts to about 30 percent of Earth’s total land area. (The boundary between Asia and Africa is usually drawn at the Suez Canal, while the Asia-Europe and Asia-Oceania boundaries are a bit murkier. Social and political ties, as always, are able to cross these arbitrary lines.)

 

115

The land area in square miles of the Republic of Maldives, the smallest Asian country by that measure. Contrast that to the over 6 million square miles of Russia, the largest country in Asia (and the world).

 

49

The number of sovereign states in Asia. The figure includes Cyprus, Egypt (thanks to the Sinai Peninsula), Russia, and Turkey. It does not include the always controversial Palestine and Taiwan, nor does it include dependencies or other territories.

 

36.38 trillion

The nominal GDP in U.S. dollars of Asia. Not surprisingly, that’s number one among all continents. When the same figure is expressed per capita, Asia drops to fourth place behind Oceania, North America, and Europe.

 

2,300

The approximate number of languages spoken in Asia. Did you hear that Canada? Figuring out the whole English-French debate shouldn’t be that hard.

 

2,717

The height in feet of the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world. Located in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, the building is about 644 feet taller than its nearest competitor, the Shanghai Tower in Shanghai, China.

 

29,031

The height in feet of the highest point above sea level on Earth. It’s also known as Mount Everest, located in Nepal and China (Tibet).

 

A lot

The amount of music written by Asian musicians. Here are a couple tunes, the first by Armenian pianist Tigran Hamasyan and the second by a partnership that included the Indian legend Ravi Shankar. The last two minutes of both songs compete for the greatest two minutes in music (as per our completely non-scientific judgement). You’ll have to slog through the entire songs to get the full effect, but it’s worth it.

 

 

 

 

What’s the take-home message? Asia is a continent.