Africa is the world’s second largest and second most-populous continent (behind Asia in both categories). 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.^[3] With 1.2 billion people^[1] as of 2016, it accounts for about 16% of the world’s human population.