Africa is second largest continent in size and the second largest continent in population.
The African continent is located mainly in the Eastern Hemisphere and to the major part in the Northern Hemisphere.

Did you know that Africa is bigger than the USA, Canada and India together? Africa covers an area larger than 30 million square kilometres/ 11.7 million square miles!

𝟭. There are 𝟱𝟰 𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗔𝗳𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗮 – and 9 dependent territories. 𝗠𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻 𝟭.𝟯 𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗼𝗻 people live on the African continent. This means about 15% of the world’s total population live in Africa!

𝟮. 𝗟𝗮𝗿𝗴𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗖𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗿𝘆: Algeria. This country is among the ten largest countries in the world.
The most populous country in Africa, however, is Nigeria, with more than 219 million people, but the country is only a third of the size of Algeria.

𝟯. 𝗟𝗮𝗿𝗴𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗖𝗶𝘁𝘆: Lagos in Nigeria. With more than 22 million inhabitants, Lagos is also one of the biggest metropolitan cities in the world and is estimated to become the world’s largest city by 2100 with more than 100 million inhabitants!

𝟰. 𝗦𝗺𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗖𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗿𝘆: Seychelles, which is an archipelago (nation of islands) in the Indian Ocean. On the African mainland, the smallest country is The Gambia. Read our Seychelles Facts here.

𝟱. 𝗕𝗶𝗴𝗴𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗜𝘀𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗱: Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. Madagascar is the fourth largest island in the world – after Greenland, New Guinea and Borneo.

𝟲. 𝗟𝗼𝗻𝗴𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗥𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿: Nile (6,852 km/ 4,258 miles). The Nile is the longest river in the world and passes through eleven countries. The Nile has two sources: The White Nile coming from Lake Victoria in Tanzania and the Blue Nile coming from Lake Tana in Ethiopia. The river mouth is in Egypt. The confluence in Khartoum/Sudan.

𝟳. 𝗛𝗶𝗴𝗵𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗠𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻: Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. Mount Kilimanjaro has three volcanic cones and the highest volcanic cone of them is called ‘Kibo’. The highest peak is called ‘Uhuru Peak’ with 5,895 m/ 19,340 ft. The mountain is located in the Tanzanian highlands at the border to Kenya. Mount Kilimanjaro can only be climbed from the Tanzanian side but can even be seen from Nairobi, the capital of Kenya.

𝟴. 𝗕𝗶𝗴𝗴𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗟𝗮𝗸𝗲: Lake Victoria (bordering Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya) is also the world’s second largest freshwater lake. Only Lake Superior in North America is bigger!

𝟵. 𝗗𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗲: The Sahara in northern Africa is the largest hot desert in the world. The climate is extremely dry (arid) in this region. Read more about the world’s deserts here.

𝟭𝟬. There are sixteen 𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗹𝗼𝗰𝗸𝗲𝗱 𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀 in Africa. These countries are all located in the interior of the continent and have neither access to the Atlantic Ocean nor to the Indian Ocean. Two of these landlocked countries, the tiny countries of Eswatini and Lesotho, are located within South Africa.