Asia

Asia is the largest and most populous continent on Earth. It covers about 44,580,000 km² (17.2 million square miles), almost a third of Earth’s total land area, and is home to roughly 4.7 billion people, which is around 60% of the world’s population. Asia contains 48 sovereign countries, including the world’s two most populous (China and India, each with over a billion people).

Where is Asia?

Asia stretches from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Indian Ocean in the south, and from the Mediterranean and Red Seas in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It shares its land border with Europe along the Ural Mountains and the Caspian Sea, and with Africa at the Suez isthmus.

Asian geography

Asia contains some of the planet’s most extreme landscapes. The Himalayas hold the world’s 14 highest peaks, topped by Mount Everest at 8,848 m. The Tibetan Plateau is the highest large plateau on Earth (“the roof of the world”). The Gobi Desert stretches across Mongolia and China; the Arabian Desert covers the Arabian Peninsula. The Dead Sea on the Israel, Jordan border is Earth’s lowest land point (about −430 m). Great rivers shape Asia’s civilisations: the Yangtze and Yellow rivers in China, the Ganges and Indus in South Asia, the Mekong in Southeast Asia, the Tigris and Euphrates in the Middle East.

Regions of Asia

Asia is normally divided into five regions:

East Asia, China, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Mongolia, Taiwan.
South Asia, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Afghanistan.
Southeast Asia, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Brunei, East Timor.
Central Asia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan.
West Asia (the Middle East), Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait, Cyprus, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia.

People, languages, and religions

Asia is the birthplace of every major world religion: Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Sikhism all began on Asian soil. Major languages include Mandarin Chinese (the most-spoken first language on Earth), Hindi, Arabic, Bengali, Russian, Japanese, Korean, Indonesian, Urdu, Vietnamese, Turkish, and Tamil. Asia’s cultures have been shaped by ancient civilisations including those of Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley, China, and Persia.

Famous landmarks

Asia is studded with world-famous sites: the Great Wall of China, the Taj Mahal in India, Angkor Wat in Cambodia, Mount Fuji in Japan, Petra in Jordan, the Forbidden City in Beijing, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai (the world’s tallest building), the Terracotta Army near Xi’an, and the temples of Bagan, Kyoto, and Bangkok.

Explore Asian countries

Choose any of Asia’s 48 countries below for its full Factsmania fact file.

The flag of Afghanistan: a white field with black Arabic script, the Islamic declaration of faith, across the centre.

AfghanistanAfghanistan is a landlocked, mountainous country in Central Asia dominated by the Hindu Kush range, long positioned at a crossroads of trade and empire.

Capital city: Kabul
Population: about 42,000,000
Area: 652,090 km2

The flag of Bahrain: a white band at the hoist and a red field, separated by a five-point zigzag line.

BahrainBahrain is a small Gulf archipelago of around 33 islands, the first Gulf state to find oil and now a banking and services centre.

Capital city: Manama
Population: about 1,500,000
Area: 758 km2

The flag of Bangladesh: a dark green field with a red circle set slightly left of centre.

BangladeshBangladesh sits on the world's largest river delta in South Asia. It is one of the most densely populated countries and home to the Sundarbans mangrove forest.

Capital city: Dhaka
Population: about 173,000,000
Area: 143,998 km2

The flag of Bhutan: a white dragon holding jewels lies along the diagonal between a yellow upper triangle and an orange lower one.

BhutanBhutan is a small Himalayan kingdom that measures progress by Gross National Happiness. Around 70 per cent forested, it is the only carbon-negative country on Earth.

Capital city: Thimphu
Population: about 790,000
Area: 38,394 km2

The flag of Brunei: a yellow field crossed by diagonal white and black stripes, with the red national crest in the centre.

BruneiBrunei is a small, oil-rich sultanate on the north coast of Borneo, most of which is still covered in rainforest.

Capital city: Bandar Seri Begawan
Population: about 460,000
Area: 5,765 km2

The flag of Cambodia: blue, red and blue horizontal bands with a white outline of Angkor Wat temple in the centre.

CambodiaCambodia is a Southeast Asian country on the Mekong River, home to Angkor Wat and the Tonle Sap lake, which reverses its flow each monsoon.

Capital city: Phnom Penh
Population: about 17,000,000
Area: 181,035 km2

The flag of China: a red field with one large gold star and four smaller gold stars arranged in an arc beside it in the top left corner.

ChinaChina is the most populous country in the world and the fourth largest by area. It has one of the oldest continuous civilisations and the largest manufacturing economy on Earth.

Capital city: Beijing
Population: about 1,410,000,000
Area: 9,598,000 km2

The flag of East Timor: a red field with a black triangle bearing a white star, over a wider yellow triangle at the hoist.

East TimorEast Timor occupies the eastern half of the island of Timor in Southeast Asia. It became fully independent in 2002, the first new country of the 21st century.

Capital city: Dili
Population: about 1,400,000
Area: 14,874 km2

The flag of India: three horizontal bands of saffron, white and green, with a navy blue 24-spoked wheel in the centre.

IndiaIndia is the most populous country in the world, a South Asian nation of enormous cultural and linguistic variety, walled off in the north by the Himalayas.

Capital city: New Delhi
Population: about 1,430,000,000
Area: 3,287,260 km2

IndonesiaIndonesia is the largest archipelago in the world, made of over 17,000 islands. It is the fourth most populous country and has more active volcanoes than anywhere else.

Capital city: Jakarta (a new capital, Nusantara, is under construction)
Population: about 279,000,000
Area: 1,904,569 km2

The flag of Iran: three horizontal bands of green, white and red, with a stylised red emblem in the centre and Arabic script along the band edges.

IranIran is a mountainous country in western Asia built around a high desert plateau. It was the centre of the Persian Empire and has a distinct language and culture.

Capital city: Tehran
Population: about 89,000,000
Area: 1,648,200 km2

The flag of Iraq: three horizontal bands of red, white and black, with the green Arabic phrase Allahu Akbar across the white band.

IraqIraq lies across ancient Mesopotamia, the land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers where the first cities and the first writing system appeared.

Capital city: Baghdad
Population: about 45,000,000
Area: 435,244 km2

The flag of Israel: a white field with two horizontal blue stripes and a blue Star of David in the centre.

IsraelIsrael is a small country on the eastern Mediterranean, established in 1948. It contains the Dead Sea, the lowest land on Earth, and sites sacred to three religions.

Capital city: Jerusalem
Population: about 9,800,000
Area: 22,072 km2

The flag of Japan: a white field with a large crimson red circle in the centre, representing the sun.

JapanJapan is an island country off the east coast of Asia, made up of over 14,000 islands. It is highly mountainous, volcanically active and one of the world's leading economies.

Capital city: Tokyo
Population: about 124,000,000
Area: 377,975 km2

The flag of Jordan: black, white and green horizontal bands with a red triangle at the hoist bearing a small white seven-pointed star.

JordanJordan is a largely desert country in the Middle East, containing the rock-cut city of Petra, the Dead Sea shore and the sandstone desert of Wadi Rum.

Capital city: Amman
Population: about 11,500,000
Area: 89,342 km2

KazakhstanKazakhstan is the world's largest landlocked country, a vast expanse of steppe and desert in Central Asia, and home to the Baikonur spaceport.

Capital city: Astana
Population: about 20,000,000
Area: 2,724,900 km2

The flag of Kuwait: green, white and red horizontal bands with a black trapezoid at the hoist.

KuwaitKuwait is a small, flat desert country at the head of the Persian Gulf. Once a pearling and trading port, it became wealthy through oil in the 20th century.

Capital city: Kuwait City
Population: about 4,300,000
Area: 17,818 km2

The flag of Kyrgyzstan: a red field with a yellow sun of forty rays containing the crossed roof-frame of a yurt.

KyrgyzstanKyrgyzstan is a mountainous, landlocked Central Asian country covered by the Tian Shan range, with a strong surviving tradition of nomadic herding.

Capital city: Bishkek
Population: about 7,000,000
Area: 199,951 km2

The flag of Laos: red bands top and bottom with a wider blue band in the middle carrying a large white circle.

LaosLaos is the only landlocked country in Southeast Asia, mountainous and forested, with the Mekong River forming much of its western border.

Capital city: Vientiane
Population: about 7,700,000
Area: 236,800 km2

The flag of Lebanon: red bands top and bottom with a wider white band in the middle bearing a green cedar tree.

LebanonLebanon is a small mountainous country on the eastern Mediterranean, the only Middle Eastern nation with no desert, famous for its ancient cedar trees.

Capital city: Beirut
Population: about 5,400,000
Area: 10,452 km2

The flag of Malaysia: fourteen red and white stripes with a blue rectangle in the top left containing a yellow crescent and fourteen-pointed star.

MalaysiaMalaysia is a Southeast Asian country split between the Malay Peninsula and northern Borneo, with some of the oldest rainforest in the world.

Capital city: Kuala Lumpur
Population: about 34,000,000
Area: 330,803 km2

The flag of the Maldives: a red field with a large green rectangle in the centre bearing a white crescent moon.

MaldivesThe Maldives is a nation of around 1,190 coral islands in the Indian Ocean. It is the lowest-lying country in the world and highly vulnerable to rising sea levels.

Capital city: Malé
Population: about 520,000
Area: 298 km2

The flag of Mongolia: red, blue and red vertical bands, with the gold soyombo symbol on the band nearest the hoist.

MongoliaMongolia is a vast, landlocked country of steppe, mountains and the Gobi Desert between Russia and China. It is the least densely populated country in the world.

Capital city: Ulaanbaatar
Population: about 3,500,000
Area: 1,564,100 km2

The flag of Myanmar: three horizontal bands of yellow, green and red with a large white five-pointed star in the centre.

MyanmarMyanmar is the largest country in mainland Southeast Asia, built around the Irrawaddy River, with the ancient temple plain of Bagan at its heart.

Capital city: Naypyidaw
Population: about 55,000,000
Area: 676,578 km2

The flag of Nepal: two stacked crimson pennants edged in blue, the upper bearing a white moon and the lower a white sun.

NepalNepal is a Himalayan country between India and China, rising from tropical lowland to Mount Everest. It has the only non-rectangular national flag in the world.

Capital city: Kathmandu
Population: about 30,000,000
Area: 147,181 km2

The flag of North Korea: blue, red and blue horizontal bands separated by white lines, with a red star in a white circle towards the hoist.

North KoreaNorth Korea occupies the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. It is the world's most closed country, ruled since 1948 by three generations of one family.

Capital city: Pyongyang
Population: about 26,000,000
Area: 120,540 km2

The flag of Oman: white, red and green horizontal bands with a red vertical band at the hoist bearing the national emblem of daggers and swords.

OmanOman occupies the eastern Arabian Peninsula, with rugged mountains, desert and a long coastline. It has a long history of seafaring and frankincense trade.

Capital city: Muscat
Population: about 5,200,000
Area: 309,500 km2

The flag of Pakistan: a dark green field with a white crescent and star, and a vertical white stripe at the hoist.

PakistanPakistan is a South Asian country running from the Arabian Sea to the Himalaya, Karakoram and Hindu Kush mountains, with the Indus River as its lifeline.

Capital city: Islamabad
Population: about 240,000,000
Area: 881,913 km2

The flag of the Philippines: a white triangle at the hoist with a gold sun and three stars, beside horizontal blue and red bands.

PhilippinesThe Philippines is an archipelago of 7,641 islands in the western Pacific. It is volcanically active, hit by around 20 typhoons a year, and rich in marine life.

Capital city: Manila
Population: about 117,000,000
Area: 300,000 km2

The flag of Qatar: a white band at the hoist and a large maroon field, separated by a nine-point serrated line.

QatarQatar is a small desert peninsula in the Persian Gulf. Enormous natural gas reserves made it one of the wealthiest countries in the world per person.

Capital city: Doha
Population: about 3,000,000
Area: 11,586 km2

The flag of Saudi Arabia: a green field with white Arabic script above a white horizontal sword.

Saudi ArabiaSaudi Arabia covers most of the Arabian Peninsula and is almost entirely desert. It holds Islam's two holiest cities and enormous reserves of oil.

Capital city: Riyadh
Population: about 37,000,000
Area: 2,149,680 km2

The flag of Singapore: a red band above a white band, with a white crescent moon and five stars in the top left corner.

SingaporeSingapore is an island city-state at the tip of the Malay Peninsula. With almost no natural resources, it became one of the world's wealthiest countries through trade.

Capital city: Singapore
Population: about 5,900,000
Area: 735 km2

The flag of South Korea: a white field with a red and blue circular taegeuk symbol in the centre and four sets of black bars in the corners.

South KoreaSouth Korea occupies the southern half of the Korean Peninsula. It transformed from poverty to a high-technology economy within a single lifetime.

Capital city: Seoul
Population: about 52,000,000
Area: 100,210 km2

The flag of Sri Lanka: a gold lion holding a sword on a maroon field with four bo leaves, beside green and orange vertical stripes.

Sri LankaSri Lanka is an island nation south of India with rainforest, highlands, tea plantations and abundant wildlife including elephants and leopards.

Capital city: Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte (Colombo is the commercial capital)
Population: about 22,000,000
Area: 65,610 km2

The flag of Syria: three horizontal bands of red, white and black with two green five-pointed stars in the white band.

SyriaSyria is a Middle Eastern country of coast, mountains and desert containing some of the world's oldest cities, including Damascus and Aleppo.

Capital city: Damascus
Population: about 23,000,000
Area: 185,180 km2

The flag of Taiwan: a red field with a blue rectangle in the top left containing a white sun with twelve triangular rays.

TaiwanTaiwan is a mountainous island off the coast of mainland China. It governs itself, and it manufactures most of the world's most advanced computer chips.

Capital city: Taipei
Population: about 23,000,000
Area: 36,191 km2

The flag of Tajikistan: red, white and green horizontal bands with a gold crown and seven stars in the centre.

TajikistanTajikistan is a mountainous, landlocked Central Asian country dominated by the Pamir range, known as the Roof of the World.

Capital city: Dushanbe
Population: about 10,000,000
Area: 143,100 km2

The flag of Thailand: five horizontal bands of red, white, blue, white and red, with the blue band twice the width of the others.

ThailandThailand is a Southeast Asian country of mountains, rice plains and tropical beaches. It is the only country in the region never colonised by a European power.

Capital city: Bangkok
Population: about 72,000,000
Area: 513,120 km2

TurkeyTurkey spans Europe and Asia across the Bosphorus strait. It holds ancient sites including Gobekli Tepe and Cappadocia, and Istanbul sits on two continents.

Capital city: Ankara
Population: about 85,000,000
Area: 783,562 km2

The flag of Turkmenistan: a green field with a vertical carpet-pattern stripe at the hoist, a white crescent and five stars, and olive branches.

TurkmenistanTurkmenistan is a largely desert country in Central Asia with enormous natural gas reserves, famous for the burning Darvaza gas crater and Akhal-Teke horses.

Capital city: Ashgabat
Population: about 6,500,000
Area: 488,100 km2

The flag of the United Arab Emirates: three horizontal bands of green, white and black with a vertical red band at the hoist.

United Arab EmiratesThe United Arab Emirates is a federation of seven emirates on the Arabian Peninsula. Oil wealth transformed a desert region into a global hub within one lifetime.

Capital city: Abu Dhabi
Population: about 9,500,000
Area: 83,600 km2

The flag of Uzbekistan: horizontal bands of blue, white and green separated by thin red lines, with a crescent and twelve stars in the blue band.

UzbekistanUzbekistan is a doubly landlocked Central Asian country of deserts and oasis cities. Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva were major stops on the Silk Road.

Capital city: Tashkent
Population: about 36,000,000
Area: 447,400 km2

The flag of Vietnam: a red field with a large five-pointed yellow star in the centre.

VietnamVietnam is a long, narrow country in Southeast Asia with two great river deltas, a 3,200 km coastline and the largest cave passage in the world.

Capital city: Hanoi
Population: about 100,000,000
Area: 331,212 km2

The flag of Yemen: three horizontal bands of red, white and black.

YemenYemen occupies the south-west of the Arabian Peninsula, with mountains, desert and the biologically unique island of Socotra.

Capital city: Sana'a
Population: about 34,000,000
Area: 527,968 km2