Emerged land makes up about a third of the planet’s area. This is broken up into pieces called continents and it has a mean height of 800 metres.
These large masses are then in turn divided, whether this be geographically or culturally (for example, the division of Eurasia into Europe and Asia). Nonetheless, it has traditionally been held that there are six continents: America, Europe, Oceania, Asia, Africa and Antarctica.
There are currently 192 independent countries recognised by the UN (the United Nations). These form a great mosaic of diverse physical (climate, surface, topography etc.) and demographic characteristics over the aforementioned continents.
Global population
The distribution of the world’s population has been determined by geographic and economic considerations, although sociological and cultural factors have also had an influence. Currently, the total number of inhabitants on the planet is around 6.5 billion. The most populated areas in the world are located in Monsoon Asia (India, China, etc.), where half the world’s population is concentrated; followed by Europe, which also has a very high population density. On the other hand, some areas are completely devoid of population because of their harsh climactic conditions: excessively cold areas, dry areas, very high areas and virgin forests.
