> [!infobox] <s class="aside-in"><em>mentioned in 4 topics, 1 evergreen, 5 sources</em></s> #### <s class="topic-title">[[Africa]]</s> > [!wikipedia] [Africa](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Africa) > > Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after [[Asia]] in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of [[Earth]]'s total surface area and 20% of its land area. With 1.3 billion people as of 2018, it accounts for about 16% of the world's human population. Africa's population is the youngest amongst all the continents; the median age in 2012 was 19.7, when the worldwide median age was 30.4. Despite a wide range of natural resources, Africa is the least wealthy continent per capita, in part due to geographic impediments, legacies of [[European colonization]] in Africa and [[the Cold War]], predatory/neo-colonialistic activities by [[Western philosophy|Western]] nations and [[China]], and undemocratic rule and deleterious policies. Despite this low concentration of wealth, recent economic expansion and the large and young population make Africa an important economic market in the broader global context. > > Most of the continent lies in the tropics, except for a large part of Western Sahara, Algeria, Libya and Egypt, the northern tip of Mauritania, the entire territories of Morocco, Ceuta, Melilla, and Tunisia which in turn are located above the tropic of Cancer, in the northern temperate zone. In the other extreme of the continent, southern Namibia, southern Botswana, great parts of South Africa, the entire territories of Lesotho and Eswatini and the southern tips of Mozambique and Madagascar are located below the tropic of Capricorn, in the southern temperate zone. > > Africa also is heavily affected by a wide range of environmental issues, including desertification, deforestation, water scarcity, and other issues. These entrenched environmental concerns are expected to worsen as [[climate change]] impacts Africa. > **See**:: #### Related No results to show for list query.