List of continents by population

Source UN (World Population Prospects 2024)
Date16 Aug 2024

Asia is the most populous continent in the world, with 4.81 billion people accounting for nearly 58.89% of the world population as of 2024. Africa is the second most largest continent by population, with around 1.52 billion people, or 18.56% of the world's population. Only these two continents have crossed one billion milestone. Asia and Africa, together share over 77% of the global population. Europe has a population of around 745 million (9.13%), North America is home to around 613 million (7.51%), South America, the second least populated continent, has about 436 million inhabitants (5.34%). Oceania (46 million) is the smallest continent on the basis population if Antarctica is excluded as there is no population estimates for Antarctica by UN (World Population Prospects 2024).

Top three biggest subregions belong to Asia Continent : Southern Asia (2.06 bn), Eastern Asia (1.66 bn) and South-Eastern Asia (695 mn). 45.58% of the world's population lives in Southern Asia (25.29%) and Eastern Asia (20.29%). Southern Asia includes India, the most populous country and Eastern Asia includes China, the 2nd most populous country. Micronesia is the smallest subregion followed by Polynesia having less than 1 mn people.

Africa has the highest population growth rate as all three subregions growing over 2% are in Africa. Middle Africa has highest rate of over 3% followed by Eastern Africa and Western Africa growing over 2%. The population growth rate of Africa (2.30%) continent is almost double of the growth rate of second most fastest growing continent Oceania (1.15%). Except Africa and Oceania, remaining four continent have growth grate below 1%. Population of Asia (0.60%), South America (0.59%) and North America (0.70%) are increasing with almost similar rate. Eight subregions have growth rate above 1%. Europe is the only continent with negative growth rate of -0.08% as lowest two ranked subregions are located in Europe. Southern Europe, Eastern Europe and Eastern Asia have negative growth rate.

With 34 mn more people in 2024, Africa is the top contributor of the total world population increment closely followed by Asia (29 mn).

Population of Europe has reached its peak level in 2020, South America is the next continent that is projected to peak in 2049. Asia and.North America are projected to peak in 2054 and 2083, resp. Population of Africa and Oceania will not peak until 2100.

Continents by population

Rank Continent Population Share (%) Growth (2024)
20232024 Net changerate (%)
1 Jan1 July1 Jan1 July
1Asia4,763,516,2474,778,004,4864,792,492,7244,806,898,00758.8928,810,5660.60
2Africa1,463,627,1431,480,770,5251,497,913,9071,515,140,84918.5634,453,8842.30
3Europe745,825,460745,602,875745,380,289745,083,8249.13-592,931-0.08
4North America606,521,912608,770,083611,018,254613,149,8757.514,263,2430.70
5South America431,715,134433,024,175434,333,216435,611,3025.342,556,1710.59
6Oceania45,299,66845,562,78745,825,90646,088,7160.56525,6201.15
World 8,056,505,564 8,091,734,930 8,126,964,296 8,161,972,572 70,016,553 0.86

Continents by population (historical and projection)

Continent Population Growth rate (%) against 2024
1950200020502100 1950200020502100
Asia1,368,075,4153,747,780,3045,280,378,4014,612,667,565255.8329.549.47-4.56
Africa227,776,419830,582,5282,466,647,6183,813,883,603579.7286.8359.78149.33
Europe548,867,473728,164,209703,027,759592,250,63536.342.29-5.45-20.60
North America222,818,375485,804,657687,962,143709,315,901177.0527.0712.2015.60
South America112,973,121348,018,671468,674,488379,097,351291.9226.427.29-13.51
Oceania12,582,04431,352,62457,688,17872,945,697273.5248.9824.0357.62
World 2,493,092,848 6,171,702,993 9,664,378,587 10,180,160,751 231.67 33.72 17.65 24.12

Subregions by population

Rank Subregion Population Share (%) Growth (2024) Continent
20232024 Net changerate (%)
1 Jan1 July1 Jan1 July
4Eastern Africa481,376,957487,857,331494,337,705500,703,8466.1312,732,2822.58Africa
5Western Africa440,952,989446,044,485451,135,981456,251,3295.5910,230,6952.27Africa
10Northern Africa266,888,866268,541,105270,193,344272,131,3393.333,875,9891.43Africa
11Middle Africa202,700,272206,129,903209,559,534212,915,6362.616,712,2033.20Africa
17Southern Africa71,708,05972,197,70172,687,34373,138,7010.90902,7151.24Africa
16Central Asia80,092,66180,810,16381,527,66582,225,8651.011,396,4001.71Asia
2Eastern Asia1,662,008,0901,660,028,5461,658,049,0011,656,115,40520.29-3,867,192-0.23Asia
1Southern Asia2,032,699,2502,043,083,1602,053,467,0702,064,056,49125.2921,178,8421.03Asia
3South-Eastern Asia687,564,643690,117,184692,669,726695,149,4288.524,959,4040.72Asia
8Western Asia301,151,603303,965,432306,779,262309,350,8183.795,143,1121.68Asia
9Eastern Europe286,750,088286,047,445285,344,802285,003,0313.49-683,541-0.24Europe
15Northern Europe107,925,860108,297,394108,668,929108,964,1981.34590,5390.54Europe
14Southern Europe151,930,785151,720,922151,511,059151,253,9851.85-514,148-0.34Europe
12Western Europe199,218,727199,537,113199,855,499199,862,6092.4514,2190.01Europe
7Northern America381,661,218382,902,742384,144,265385,295,1054.722,301,6800.60North America
13Central America180,713,451181,618,074182,522,698183,409,9602.251,774,5250.97North America
18Caribbean44,147,24344,249,26744,351,29144,444,8100.54187,0380.42North America
6South America431,715,134433,024,175434,333,216435,611,3025.342,556,1710.59South America
19Australia/New Zealand31,472,15931,623,96031,775,76131,927,1490.39302,7760.95Oceania
20Melanesia12,613,63012,724,06412,834,49812,944,9000.16220,8051.72Oceania
21Polynesia689,436689,523689,610689,7440.012670.04Oceania
22Micronesia524,443525,240526,037526,9230.011,7720.34Oceania
World 8,056,505,564 8,091,734,930 8,126,964,296 8,161,972,572 70,016,553 0.86

Subregions by population (historical and projection)

Continent Population Growth rate (%) against 2024 Continent
1950200020502100 1950200020502100
Eastern Africa65,735,637259,491,404855,453,3531,382,604,934679.7398.1467.35173.25Africa
Western Africa70,442,149242,586,127734,831,1081,069,781,674561.2692.8458.16132.12Africa
Northern Africa50,045,357175,569,257373,025,622462,424,933454.1557.5835.4968.77Africa
Middle Africa26,735,29099,234,666411,712,069790,422,667715.84121.5088.39266.65Africa
Southern Africa14,817,98653,701,07591,625,466108,649,394401.6037.6524.1147.78Africa
Central Asia17,575,68156,180,715113,612,322149,900,193378.5748.4436.3380.95Asia
Eastern Asia671,914,9041,498,971,5591,467,038,093769,522,840148.2210.75-10.96-53.83Asia
Southern Asia464,073,7441,478,613,5942,505,837,2962,489,357,114351.7641.6720.5219.79Asia
South-Eastern Asia164,549,272527,123,975774,570,267679,274,025329.0233.3410.98-2.86Asia
Western Asia49,961,813186,890,460419,320,422524,613,393531.9768.8133.8568.30Asia
Eastern Europe220,505,491304,612,977255,659,220200,167,85629.98-6.74-9.98-29.82Europe
Northern Europe77,377,47394,555,173115,849,083110,432,48541.7915.735.990.97Europe
Southern Europe108,563,322145,705,973135,237,63696,332,97039.683.74-10.16-36.39Europe
Western Europe142,421,189183,290,086196,281,820185,317,32440.639.26-1.72-7.31Europe
Northern America168,009,338312,499,985426,579,885474,966,034131.7924.2810.2523.00North America
Central America37,615,700135,055,823215,385,141197,004,624396.3837.5716.706.62North America
Caribbean17,193,33738,248,84945,997,11737,345,243161.6017.003.33-16.40North America
South America112,973,121348,018,671468,674,488379,097,351291.9226.427.29-13.51South America
Australia/New Zealand10,088,01322,990,04538,262,25748,955,978222.6740.3118.9352.94Oceania
Melanesia2,076,9087,227,82018,090,92922,581,827535.2083.3737.9373.02Oceania
Polynesia255,407625,628735,268754,397173.5110.776.479.27Oceania
Micronesia161,716509,131599,723653,495229.184.1213.3623.73Oceania
World 2,493,092,848 6,171,702,993 9,664,378,587 10,180,160,751 231.67 33.72 17.65 24.12