About Africa

African continent

• Africa is the second largest continent on earth, approximately 30 million square kilometres.
• Africa straddles the equator and is the only continent to extend from the northern temperate zone to the southern temperate zone.
• Africa is the hottest continent on earth.
• Africa covers 6 percent of the earth’s total surface and 20.4 percent of the total land area.
• The continent of Africa has nearly 45% of all natural and mineral resources in the world.

Peoples of Africa

• The African continent has the second largest population in the world, at about one billion people.
• Well over one thousand languages are spoken by the people of Africa. Some estimates put this number closer to two thousand.
• The African population is approximately 15% of the world’s population.
• The average age of Africans is 19 years and life expectancy is just under 60 years.

Africa geography

• The longest river in the world, the Nile, is located in Africa and is nearly 7,000 kilometres long.
• Africa has the world’s largest desert, the Sahara, which is almost the size of the United States.
• Victoria Falls is the largest waterfall in Africa at nearly 100 metres high and more than a kilometre wide.
• Mount Kilimanjaro is the highest mountain on the continent towering at just under 6,000 metres, where glaciers can be found at its summit even though the mountain is near the equator.
• Madagascar is the largest island in Africa and the fourth largest island in the world found in the Indian Ocean off Africa’s east coast.
• The Congo River is the world’s deepest river – up to 220 meters.

African animals

• The world’s largest land animal is the African elephant.
• The world’s tallest animal, the giraffe, lives in Africa.
• The fastest land animal in the world, the cheetah, lives in Africa.
• Africa is home to the world’s largest reptile, the Nile crocodile.
• The gorilla, the world’s largest primate, can be found in the continent’s jungles.

Africa topical overview