How Many Continents Are There?7 in the standard model
There are 7 continents in the most widely taught model: Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Australia/Oceania, Europe, North America and South America. Other school systems teach 6, 5 or even 4: the split is a convention, and every version has its own logic.
It depends on the model
Ask “how many continents” in different school systems and you get every answer from 7 down to 4. None of them is wrong: a continent is a convention, and each model draws its lines in a defensible place.
| Count | How the model groups the land, and who teaches it | Used by |
|---|---|---|
| 7 | Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Australia/Oceania, Europe, North America, South America. The most widely taught model: standard in the United States, the United Kingdom and most English-speaking school systems, and the one this site uses. | US · UK |
| 6 | Europe and Asia merged into Eurasia. The two share one continuous landmass, and the border between them is cultural, not physical. Common in Russia and in physical geography. | Russia · geo |
| 6 | North and South America merged into a single America. Taught across most of Latin America and in parts of Southern Europe, including Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece. | Latin America |
| 5 | Only the inhabited continents: Africa, America, Asia, Europe, Oceania. Antarctica, with no permanent population, is left out. This is the model behind the five Olympic rings. | IOC |
| 4 | The strict landmass reading: Afro-Eurasia, America, Antarctica, Australia. Africa joins Asia at the Isthmus of Suez, so a purist count merges Africa, Europe and Asia into one. Rare outside geography debates. | landmass |
Continents by the numbers
Countries per continent, counted by the UN standard of 195 sovereign states. Each tile links to the full list for that continent.
Counts follow the UN M49 geoscheme, the same standard as our continent pages: transcontinental states such as Russia and Turkey are assigned to one side. Antarctica has no countries at all. Under the Antarctic Treaty of 1959 no state owns it, and the continent is reserved for peaceful use and science.
Zealandia, the candidate for continent number 8
In 2017, a team of geologists led by Nick Mortimer published the case for Zealandia in GSA Today, the journal of the Geological Society of America: a block of continental crust of about 4.9 million square kilometers in the southwest Pacific, with New Zealand and New Caledonia as its highest points. About 94% of it sits below sea level, which is why no classroom map shows it. By the geological criteria for a continent (elevated crust, distinctive rocks, crust thicker than the surrounding ocean floor, a large and well-defined area) Zealandia qualifies. Whether atlases ever list it as the 8th continent is still an open scientific conversation, not a settled fact.
Read the 2017 paper in GSA Today →Why the Olympic flag has 5 rings
The five interlaced rings, designed by Pierre de Coubertin in 1913, stand for the five inhabited continents united by the Games: Africa, America, Asia, Europe and Oceania. No ring belongs to a specific continent. The colors (blue, yellow, black, green and red on a white field) were chosen because every national flag of the era could be drawn with them. The flag made its Olympic debut at the Antwerp Games in 1920.
The Olympic rings, explained by the IOC →FAQ
How many continents are there?
There are 7 continents in the most widely taught model: Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Australia/Oceania, Europe, North America and South America. Other school systems teach 6, 5 or even 4, because a continent is a convention rather than a strict physical category.
Why do some countries teach 6 continents?
Two different six-continent models exist. Russia and much of physical geography merge Europe and Asia into Eurasia, since they share one landmass. Most of Latin America and parts of Southern Europe merge North and South America into a single America. Both models are internally consistent; they simply draw the line in different places.
Is Europe really a continent?
Physically, Europe and Asia form one landmass, Eurasia. The customary border along the Ural Mountains, the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea is a cultural convention with deep historical roots, not a geological boundary. Europe keeps its own seat in the seven-continent model by tradition, because the two regions have long seen themselves as distinct.
What is the largest continent, and what is the smallest?
From largest to smallest by land area: Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe and Australia. Asia is the largest continent by both area and population. Australia, the mainland of the Australia/Oceania region, is the smallest by land area.
Is Zealandia a continent?
Geologically, there is a strong case that it is. A 2017 paper in GSA Today showed that Zealandia, a mostly submerged block of continental crust around New Zealand, meets the geological criteria for a continent. About 94% of it lies underwater, and standard school models have not adopted it, so the everyday answer remains 7.
How many countries are there on each continent?
Africa has 54 countries, Asia 48, Europe 44, North America 23, Oceania 14 and South America 12: 195 sovereign states in total by the UN standard. Antarctica has none; it is governed by the Antarctic Treaty. Each continent has its own page with the full list on this site.
More, by numbers
Cite this page
CC BY 4.0Our compilation on this page — the figures as arranged, ranked and dated here — is published under CC BY 4.0. Reuse it anywhere, including commercially, with a link back. The underlying data belongs to the organizations credited below.
Us, by Numbers. "Us, by Numbers." https://usbynumbers.com
Sources
Every claim on this page traces to one of these.
- Encyclopaedia Britannica · Continentprimary
- National Geographic Education · Continenteducation
- IOC · The Olympic ringsolympic rings
- GSA Today (2017) · Zealandia: Earth’s Hidden Continentzealandia
- UN M49 geoscheme · Standard country or area codescountry counts
- Secretariat of the Antarctic Treatyantarctica