Where Does Africa Rank among the Seven Continents in Size?

The relative size of Africa all depends upon how we are defining the word "size."

Africa comes first in one for number of countries and second to Asia in size and population.

Here how the seven continents compare in size on a variety of different "size" categories. All of the categories have been ranked in order from largest to smallest.

Size by Square Kilometers

Asia (44,579,000 square kilometers)
Africa (30,065,000 square kilometers)
North America (24,256,000 square kilometers)
South America (17,819,000 square kilometers)
Antarctica (13,209,000 square kilometers)
Europe (9,938,000 square kilometers)
Australia (7,687,000 square kilometers)

Size by Number of Countries

Africa (53 countries)
Europe (46 countries)
Asia (44 countries)
North America (23 countries)
Australia (14 countries)
South American (12 countries)
Antarctica (o countries)

Size by Population

Asia (3,879,000,000 people)
Africa (877,500,000 people)
Europe (727,000,000 people)
North America (501,500,000 people)
South America (379,000,000 people)
Australia (32,000,000 people)
Antarctica (0)

The size by population estimates are as of 2007 are courtesy of World Atlas: but the size by square kilometers and number of countries is exactly measurable.

Countries in Africa

Now that we have determined that Africa has the most countries of any of the other continents, why don't we take a look and see all of the different countries on the continent of Africa. The countries that comprise Africa are:

Algeria
Angola
Benin
Botswana
Burkina Faso
Burundi
Cameroon
Cape Verde
Central African Republic
Chad
Comoros
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Republic of the Congo
Cote d'Ivoire
Djibouti
Egypt
Equatorial Guinea
Eritrea
Ethiopia
Gabon
The Gambia
Ghana
Guinea
Guinea-Bissau
Kenya
Lesotho
Liberia
Libya
Madagascar
Malawi
Mali
Mauritania
Mauritius
Morocco
Mozambique
Namibia
Niger
Nigeria
Rwanda
Sao Tome and Principe
Senegal
Sierra Leone
Somalia
South Africa
Sudan
Swaziland
Tanzania
Togo
Tunisia
Uganda
Zambia
Zimbabwe

Other Fun Facts about Africa

Now that we have reviewed where Africa ranks in size among the seven continents, let's also look at some other components of the continent of Africa:

Many scientists believe that all of human life originated from Africa, particularly the central eastern area. If that is the case, that makes Africa even "bigger" in the sense that we are all originally from there.
Africa accounts for over 14 percent of the world's population. As previously discussed, Asia clearly accounts for the most population.
A number of bodies of water surround Africa, since it is so incredibly large. The Mediterranean Sea is on the north, the Suez Canal and the Red Sea are on the northeast, the Indian Ocean on the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean is on the west.

Africa is an interesting continent, both for its size as well as the interesting information surrounding it.