What Is the Largest Continent in the World?

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Of the seven continents in the world, Asia ranks as the largest in terms of both size and population. Asia occupies an area of 17,139,445 square miles and is home to more than 4 billion people.

The second-largest continent in size is Africa, followed by North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe and Australia. Ranking the continents by population also puts Africa in second place, with Europe coming in third when all of Russia is included in the tally. North and South America follow, then Australia and finally Antarctica. If using the increasingly popular opinion that Europe and Asia form one continent known as Eurasia, this continent supersedes all others in both size and population.

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