Introduction
The Earth is one of the planets in the solar system, the third in distance from the sun and the fifth largest of the planets in diameter. The mean distance of the earth from the sun is 149,503,000 kilometers. It is the only planet known to support life.
The continental area (all land above sea level) amounts to about 29% of the Earth’s surface or 510,066,000 square kilometers and comprises seven major land masses or continents. The continents, in order of size are: Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe and Australasia.
The largest country in the world is Russia with an area of 17,075,400 square kilometers, followed by Canada, China, United States, Brazil, Australia, India, Argentina, Kazahstan and Sudan.
The world’s oceans can be divided into four major subdivisions:
the Pacific Ocean which apart from the marginal seas along its irregular western rim, has an area of 166 million square kilometers;
the Atlantic Ocean which has a total (including marginal seas) surface area of 82 million square kilometers;
the Indian Ocean, which has a total area of 73.4 million square kilometers and
the Arctic Ocean which has a total area of 9,485,000 square kilometers.
As well as Oceans there are numerous seas which are bodies of water that are partially landlocked or even completely landlocked like the Sea of Galilee, Caspian Sea and Lake Bakail; however most seas are connected to an ocean in some way or other.
The longest river in the world can be found in Africa and is the Nile with a total length of 6,825 kilometers. The next longest river in the world is the Amazon in South America which has a length of 6,437 kilometers and is also the widest river in the world with an annual outflow accounting for one-fifth of all the fresh water that drains into the oceans of the world. The Chang Jiang (Yangtze) in Asia is the third longest river with a total length of 6,380 kilometers, while the fourth longest is the Mississippi in North America which is 5,971 kilometers long.
The world population is approximately 6.1 billion people. As can be seen in the graph, Asia is the most populous continent with 3.73 billion people and Antarctica the least populated.
World Population by Continent
World Population GraphThe total world population figures were 6.1 billion, a mid 2000 estimate.
World Languages
Languages spoken by the most people (Native speakers only) in the world:
|
Mandarin |
885 million |
|
Hindi |
375 million |
|
Spanish |
358 million |
|
English |
347 million |
|
Arabic |
211 million |
|
Bengali |
210 million |
|
Portuguese |
178 million |
|
Russian |
165 million |
|
Japanese |
125 million |
|
German |
100 million |
|
French |
77 million |
|
Malay-Indonesian |
58 million |
Religions of the World
The largest religious group in the world is the Christians with a total of 1,955,229,000 persons constituting 33.7% of the population. The Christian group can be divided into many sects. The largest of these sects are the Roman Catholics which constitute 16.9% of the Christian group, followed by the Protestants 7.0%, Orthodox 3.8%, Anglicans 1.2% and other Christian groups holding the remaining 4.9%.
World Religions GraphThe second largest of the world religious groups are the Muslims or followers of the Islam faith, followed by 15.3%, representing those persons of the population who are non-religious. The Hindu religion, another of the Asian routed religions, holds a total of 13.7% of the population and is followed by the group of Atheists with 5.6% of the population having no belief in a deity. Chinese Folk Religionists hold 3.8%, New Religionists 1.8%, Ethnic Religionists 1.8% and Sikhs 0.3%. The remaining religious groups consist of a variety of folk and ethnic religions that have originated from around the world. Not documented on the chart above are smaller religious groups such as the Jews, Spiritualists, Baha’is, Confucians, Jains, Shintoists, Parsees, Mandeans and other Religionists that each hold less than 1% of the total.
Global Indicators
Mbendi provides a list or resources concerning global indicators such as corrpution perception, development and world investment flows.
