How many continents are there?

Answer 1

there are 7 Continent's!

Answer 2

Interestingly, the answer depends on where you were educated.

Politically, there are seven continents and these continents are what most people are familiar with:

Africa

Antarctica

Asia

Australia & Oceania

Europe

North America

South America

These political continents include areas not geographically located on the continent. A continent is defined as a large, continuous landmass. Islands are not truly a part of a continent, but are typically included so for political reasons. Australia is truly the continent within Australia & Oceania, but includes Oceania because otherwise, these islands would be without a continent. Other examples include the Caribbean being a part of North America and the Indochinese islands mostly being a part of Asia.

Geographically speaking, there are only four continents:

Afro-Eurasia

America

Antarctica

Australia

As stated above, the definition of a continent is a large, continuous landmass. The above political continents are not all separate landmasses. North America and South America are connected by the Isthmus of Panama, making it one continuous landmass. Europe is obviously attached to Asia, but many do not know that Africa is also attached to Asia via the Isthmus of Suez. This makes Europe, Asia, and Africa (Afro-Eurasia) the single largest landmass on Earth today. Australia and Antarctica are referred to as the 'Island Continents' which means they are basically not connected to any other land on the surface.

There are also subcontinents, which are basically smaller forms of continents that are free-floating islands or areas of Earth and may contain their own tectonic plates. These include Greenland, the Middle East, and India for example.

By connected land masses there are only 5:

By some definitions, the 5 would be Eurasia, Africa, Australia/Oceania, North America, and South America. This narrow definition excludes Antarctica because there is no indigenous population. The Olympic Flag rings depict five regions that participated in the 1920 Games : Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and the Americas.

Some sources list "Oceania" as the continent including Australia, New Zealand, and the nearby islands of the southwest Pacific. The problem there is arbitrarily assigning a continent designation to island nations that are equidistant from Asia and Australia. Another less-widely used name is Australasia

Answer 3

There are seven continents on Earth: Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Europe, North America, Australia, and South America.

Answer 4

There are approximately 7 continents. But some scientists say there are only 6.

Answer 5

there are 7 Continent's!