The majority of the continent and its countries are in the Northern Hemisphere, with a substantial portion and number of countries in the Southern Hemisphere. It is the only continent to stretch from the northern temperate to southern temperate zones. African nations cooperate through the establishment of the African Union, which is headquartered in Addis Ababa.Īfrica straddles the equator and the prime meridian. Algeria is Africa's largest country by area, and Nigeria is its largest by population. It contains 54 fully recognised sovereign states ( countries), eight territories and two de facto independent states with limited or no recognition. The continent includes Madagascar and various archipelagos. The continent is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Isthmus of Suez and the Red Sea to the northeast, the Indian Ocean to the southeast and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. Despite this low concentration of wealth, recent economic expansion and the large and young population make Africa an important economic market in the broader global context. Scholars have attributed this to different factors including geography, climate, tribalism, colonialism, the Cold War, neocolonialism, lack of democracy, and corruption.

Despite a wide range of natural resources, Africa is the least wealthy continent per capita and second-least wealthy by total wealth, behind Oceania. Africa's population is the youngest amongst all the continents the median age in 2012 was 19.7, when the worldwide median age was 30.4. With 1.4 billion people as of 2021, it accounts for about 18% of the world's human population. At about 30.3 million km 2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area and 20% of its land area. Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases.

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