Africa is the world’s second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² (11.7 million sq ml) including adjacent islands, it covers 6 percent of the Earth’s total surface area and 20.4 percent of the total land area(2) With about 922 million people (as of 2005) in 61 territories, it accounts for about 14.2 percent of the world’s human population.
