List of continents by population

Source UN (World Population Prospects 2019)
Date23 Aug 2021

Asia is the most populous continent in the world, with 4.68 billion people accounting for nearly 59.5% of the world population as of 2021. Africa is the second most largest continent by population, with around 1.37 billion people, or 17.4% of the world's population. Only these two continents have crossed one billion milestone. Asia and Africa, together share about 77% of the global population. Europe has a population of around 748 million (9.50%), North America is home to around 597 million (7.58%), South America, the second least populated continent, has about 434 million inhabitants (5.51%). Oceania (43 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 2019).

Top three biggest subregions belong to Asia Continent : Southern Asia (1.96 bn), Eastern Asia (1.68 bn) and South-Eastern Asia (675 mn). 46.4% of the world's population lives in Southern Asia (24.9%) and Eastern Asia (21.4%). Southern Asia includes India, the 2nd most populous country and Eastern Asia includes China, the 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 close to 3% followed by Western Africa and Eastern Africa growing over 2%. The population growth rate of Africa (2.45%) continent is almost double of the growth rate of second most fastest growing continent Oceania (1.27%). Except Africa and Oceania, remaining four continent have growth grate below 1%. Population of Asia (0.83%), South America (0.81%) and North America (0.76%) are increasing with almost similar rate. Eleven subregions have growth rate above 1%. Europe is the only continent with modest growth rate of 0.06% as lowest three ranked subregions are located in Europe. Southern Europe and Eastern Europe have negative growth rate.

With 39 mn more people in 2021 compare to 2020, Asia is the top contributor of the total world population increment closely followed by Africa (32 mn). These two together account for 89% of the total global population increament. Remaining all four continents have total increase below 5 mn.

Population of Europe is about to rech its peak level in 2021 and Asia and South America is projected to peak in 2055. Population of Africa, North America and Oceania will not peak until 2100.

Continents by population

Rank Continent Population Share (%) Growth (2021)
20202021Net changerate (%)
1Asia4,641,054,7864,679,660,58059.4238,605,7940.83
2Africa1,340,598,1131,373,486,47217.4432,888,3592.45
3Europe747,636,045747,747,3969.50111,3510.01
4North America592,072,204596,591,1927.584,518,9880.76
5South America430,759,772434,260,1385.513,500,3660.81
6Oceania42,677,80943,219,9540.55542,1451.27
World 7,794,798,729 7,874,965,732 80,167,003 1.03

Continents by population (historical and projection)

Continent Population Growth rate (%) against 2021
1950200020502100 1950200020502100
Asia1,404,908,9923,741,263,3525,290,263,1194,719,906,920233.0925.0813.050.86
Africa227,794,137810,984,2322,489,275,4394,280,127,131502.9569.3681.24211.62
Europe549,328,859725,558,028710,486,326629,562,56236.123.06-4.98-15.81
North America227,657,944485,851,217696,160,813741,580,780162.0622.7916.6924.30
South America113,765,191348,411,890491,471,869429,300,716281.7224.6413.17-1.14
Oceania12,975,89531,425,08757,376,33474,915,610233.0837.5332.7573.34
World 2,536,431,018 6,143,493,806 9,735,033,900 10,875,393,719 210.47 28.18 23.62 38.10

Subregions by population

Rank Subregion Population Share (%) Growth (2021) Continent
20202021Net changerate (%)
4Eastern Africa445,405,578457,053,2655.8011,647,6872.62Africa
13Middle Africa179,595,125184,979,9322.355,384,8073.00Africa
10Northern Africa246,232,508250,635,2653.184,402,7571.79Africa
17Southern Africa67,503,64768,358,0160.87854,3691.27Africa
6Western Africa401,861,255412,459,9945.2410,598,7392.64Africa
16Central Asia74,338,92675,426,6280.961,087,7021.46Asia
2Eastern Asia1,678,089,6271,682,854,60821.374,764,9810.28Asia
1Southern Asia1,940,369,6051,962,272,39024.9221,902,7851.13Asia
3South-Eastern Asia668,619,854675,118,4758.576,498,6210.97Asia
9Western Asia279,636,774283,988,4793.614,351,7051.56Asia
8Eastern Europe293,013,210292,486,6043.71-526,606-0.18Europe
15Northern Europe106,261,271106,712,5201.36451,2490.42Europe
14Southern Europe152,215,243151,945,0421.93-270,201-0.18Europe
11Western Europe196,146,321196,603,2302.50456,9090.23Europe
7Northern America368,869,644371,107,7184.712,238,0740.61North America
12Central America179,670,186181,721,5122.312,051,3261.14North America
18Caribbean43,532,37443,761,9620.56229,5880.53North America
5South America430,759,772434,260,1385.513,500,3660.81South America
19Australia/New Zealand30,322,11430,648,8590.39326,7451.08Oceania
20Melanesia11,122,99011,328,5800.14205,5901.85Oceania
21Polynesia683,778688,1130.014,3350.63Oceania
22Micronesia548,927554,4020.015,4751.00Oceania
World 7,794,798,729 7,874,965,732 80,167,003 1.03

Subregions by population (historical and projection)

Continent Population Growth rate (%) against 2021 Continent
1950200020502100 1950200020502100
Eastern Africa66,144,565257,353,351851,217,7141,451,842,492590.9977.6086.24217.65Africa
Middle Africa26,453,75596,115,549382,640,444746,060,562599.2692.46106.86303.32Africa
Northern Africa48,787,607171,322,846371,544,553504,857,617413.7346.2948.24101.43Africa
Southern Africa15,533,03651,443,86687,378,54093,570,918340.0832.8827.8236.88Africa
Western Africa70,875,174234,748,620796,494,1881,483,795,542481.9575.7093.11259.74Africa
Central Asia17,449,56855,345,848100,250,145114,922,970332.2536.2832.9152.36Asia
Eastern Asia677,535,2391,519,781,2951,617,342,0571,222,592,534148.3810.73-3.89-27.35Asia
Southern Asia493,338,5521,456,569,4622,396,166,6732,215,207,150297.7534.7222.1112.89Asia
South-Eastern Asia165,134,100525,007,925794,002,027744,215,122308.8328.5917.6110.23Asia
Western Asia51,451,533184,558,822382,502,217422,969,144451.9553.8734.6948.94Asia
Eastern Europe220,170,508303,918,405261,977,194219,456,41232.85-3.76-10.43-24.97Europe
Northern Europe78,007,08094,454,223114,959,963121,044,27236.8012.987.7313.43Europe
Southern Europe108,737,286144,846,713136,647,61799,758,36739.744.90-10.07-34.35Europe
Western Europe142,413,985182,338,687196,901,552189,303,51138.057.820.15-3.71Europe
Northern America172,602,611312,426,785425,200,383490,888,556115.0118.7814.5832.28North America
Central America37,975,499135,322,351223,566,840211,854,215378.5234.2923.0316.58North America
Caribbean17,079,83438,102,08147,393,59038,838,009156.2214.858.30-11.25North America
South America113,765,191348,411,890491,471,869429,300,716281.7224.6413.17-1.14South America
Australia/New Zealand10,085,35922,850,42638,421,89948,885,124203.8934.1325.3659.50Oceania
Melanesia2,493,4537,473,49317,468,77124,583,111354.3351.5854.20117.00Oceania
Polynesia241,513616,389811,331788,602184.9211.6417.9114.60Oceania
Micronesia155,570484,779674,333658,773256.3714.3621.6318.83Oceania
World 2,536,431,018 6,143,493,806 9,735,033,900 10,875,393,719 210.47 28.18 23.62 38.10