Asia

Alternative meanings: Asia (mythology), Asia Minor, Asia (band).

The continent of Asia is defined by subtracting Europe and Africa from the great land mass of Africa-Eurasia. The boundaries are vague, especially between Asia and Europe: Asia and Africa meet somewhere near the Suez Canal. The boundary between Asia and Europe runs via the Dardanelles, the Sea of Marmara, the Bosphorus, the Black Sea, the ridges of the Caucasus (according to others, through the Kuma-Manych Depression), the Caspian Sea, the Ural River (according to others, the Emba River) and the Ural Mountains to Novaya Zemlya. About 60% of the world's population live in Asia. See also Eurasia.

The region of Asia is the continent of Asia plus nearby islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans.

Table of contents

1 Subregions

1.1 North Asia
1.2 Central Asia
1.3 East Asia
1.4 Southeast Asia
1.5 South Asia
1.6 Southwest Asia

2 Population density

Subregions

As already mentioned Asia can be considered itself a subregion of the greater Eurasian continent. For further subdivisions based on that term, see North Eurasia and Central Eurasia.

Asia itself is often divided in the following subregions:

North Asia

This term is rarely used by geographers, but usually it refers to the Asian part of Russia, also known as Siberia. Sometimes the northern parts of other Asian nations like Kazakhstan are also included in Northern Asia.

Central Asia

There is no absolute consensus in the usage of this term. Usually, Central Asia includes:

the Central Asian Republics of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan.
Afghanistan, Mongolia, and the western regions of China are also sometimes included.

East Asia

This term includes:

The Pacific islands of Taiwan and Japan.
North and South Korea on the Korean Peninsula.
China, but sometimes only the eastern regions

Sometimes the nation of Mongolia is also included with East Asia.

Southeast Asia

This region contains the Malay Peninsula, Indochina and islands in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean. The countries it contains are:

In Mainland Southeast Asia, the countries of Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam.
In Maritime Southeast Asia, the countries of Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Indonesia, Brunei and East Timor.

The country of Malaysia is divided in two by the South China Sea, and thus has both a mainland and island part.

South Asia

South Asia is also referred to as the Indian Subcontinent. It includes:

the Himalayan States of India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh
the Indian Ocean nations of Sri Lanka and the Maldives.

Southwest Asia

It can also be called the Middle East, although that term is occasionally used to also refer to countries in North Africa. Southwest Asia can be further divided into:

Anatolia, which includes the nation of Turkey
The island nation of Cyprus in the Mediterranean Sea.
The Levant or Near East, which includes Syria, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq.
The Arabian peninsula, including Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Yemen and occasionally Kuwait.
The Caucasus region, including the nations of Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia.
The Iranian Plateau, containing Iran and parts of other nations.

Also see Gulf States, for a different grouping involving several of the above countries.

Population density

This is a list of countries/dependencies by population density in inhabitants/km².

Unlike the figures in the country articles, the figures in this table are based on areas including inland water bodies (lakes, reservoirs, rivers) and may therefore be lower here.

The whole of Russia, Egypt, and Turkey are referred to in the table, although they are only partly in Asia. Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan have been included, although they can also be considered part of Europe.

West Bank and Gaza Strip are not listed separately, but combined as Palestinian territories.

country pop. dens. area population
(/km²) (km²) (2002-07-01 est.)
Macau (PRC) 18,000 25 461,833
Hong Kong (PRC) 6,688 1,092 7,303,334
Singapore 6,430 693 4,452,732
Maldives 1,070 300 320,165
Bahrain 987 665 656,397
Bangladesh 926 144,000 133,376,684
Republic of China (Taiwan, Quemoy, Matsu) 627 35,980 22,548,009
Palestinian territories 545 6,220 3,389,578
South Korea 491 98,480 48,324,000
Lebanon 354 10,400 3,677,780
Japan 336 377,835 126,974,628
India 318 3,287,590 1,045,845,226
Sri Lanka 298 65,610 19,576,783
Israel 290 20,770 6,029,529
Philippines 282 300,000 84,525,639
Vietnam 246 329,560 81,098,416
North Korea 184 120,540 22,224,195
Nepal 184 140,800 25,873,917
Pakistan 184 803,940 147,663,429
People's Republic of China (Mainland) 134 9,596,960 1,284,303,705
Thailand 121 514,000 62,354,402
Indonesia 121 1,919,440 231,328,092
Kuwait 118 17,820 2,111,561
Armenia 112 29,800 3,330,099
Syria 93 185,180 17,155,814
Azerbaijan 90 86,600 7,798,497
Turkey 86 780,580 67,308,928
Georgia 71 69,700 4,960,951
Cambodia 71 181,040 12,775,324
Egypt 71 1,001,450 70,712,345
Qatar 69 11,437 793,341
Malaysia 69 329,750 22,662,365
East Timor 63 15,007 952,618
Myanmar 62 678,500 42,238,224
Brunei 61 5,770 350,898
Jordan 58 92,300 5,307,470
Uzbekistan 57 447,400 25,563,441
Iraq 55 437,072 24,001,816
Tajikistan 47 143,100 6,719,567
Bhutan 45 47,000 2,094,176
Afghanistan 43 647,500 27,755,775
Iran 40 1,648,000 66,622,704
Yemen 35 527,970 18,701,257
United Arab Emirates 30 82,880 2,445,989
Laos 24 236,800 5,777,180
Kyrgyzstan 24 198,500 4,822,166
Oman 13 212,460 2,713,462
Saudi Arabia 12 1,960,582 23,513,330
Turkmenistan 9.6 488,100 4,688,963
Russia 8.5 17,075,200 144,978,573
Kazakhstan 6.2 2,717,300 16,741,519
Mongolia 1.7 1,565,000 2,694,432

Continents of the World [ Edit {}]
Asia | Africa | North America | South America | Antarctica | Europe | Australia
(The Pacific Islands in Oceania are not part of any continent)