How big is Africa?

The continent of Africa covers nearly 12 million square miles (31 million sq. km). 

 How big is that, you wonder? It's BIG! Africa could hold the land occupied by China, India, Europe, Argentina, New Zealand and the continental United States, with room to spare! 

You've probably heard of some African countries...places like Egypt, Nigeria and Kenya. However, Africa is divided into over 40 different countries! Click on the map to find out exactly how many and to learn a little about each country! 

As of 1993, African people used more than 800 languages and regional varieties of a language, or dialects. 

 But only 10 or so of those languages are spoken by cultural groups of more than a million people. In fact, most African languages are used by groups of fewer than 100,000 people. Click on the map to see where most African languages are spoken. 

Play the AFRICAN FACTS flashcard game.

Test your knowledge of Africa!

The flashcard game uses a Java applet and requires Netscape 3.0 or the equivalent.