– Culled from Africa Facts
- Africa is the second-largest continent in the world both in size and population (after Asia.) As of 2009, about 14.7 percent of the world’s population resides in Africa.
- Africa is home to over 1 billion people who speak over 1,500 different languages. One in every four of the world’s language are spoken only in Africa.
- Africa’s total size is roughly 11.7 square miles, representing about a fifth of the earth’s total landmass. This makes it larger than India, China, Mexica, and USA’s and a huge chunk of Europe combined.
- During the early Mesozoic Era, Africa was attached to all the other continents to form one gigantic continental landmass called Pangea. Pangea later broke apart to form the world’s continents as we know them today.
- Despite Africa being the second-largest continent in the world, it has the shortest coastline. This is due to the many bays and edges that extend out of the coastline.
- World civilization began in Africa. The Pharaonic civilization of ancient Egypt is the oldest literate civilization. According to historical records, the Egyptian state dates back to about 3300 B.C.
- Africa is the most centrally located continent in the world. Both the prime meridian (0 degrees longitude), and the equator (0 degrees latitude) cut across it.
- Algeria is Africa’s largest country. It has a total area of 2,381,741 km2 (919,595 sq mi.) Previously, Sudan held that prize, till South Sudan broke away from the erstwhile Sudan. The smallest country on the continent is The Seychelles, which is an island nation covering just 453 km2 (175 miles2).
- Nigeria has the highest population (over 200 million people) in Africa. This represents 18% of Africa’s total population.
- The richest SSA country in terms of Gross National Income (GNI) per capita is Equatorial Guinea. This is 83 times higher than that of Zimbabwe which is the poorest in terms of GNI per capita.
