Geography is the study of our planet: the shape of the land, the path of rivers, the spread of oceans, the climates that shape weather, the plants and animals each place can support, and the people who live there. Whether you are exploring the Amazon, climbing Everest, or just looking at a map of your own country, geography is the lens you look through.
- Continents7Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Australia, Europe, N + S America
- Oceans5Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Arctic, Southern
- Highest PointEverest8,849 m, between Nepal and Tibet
- Lowest PointMariana Trench10,935 m below sea level
- Largest DesertAntarcticaa polar desert, 14 million km²
- Largest RainforestAmazon5.5 million km², South America
How big is each continent?
Asia is the giant of the group, more than four times bigger than Europe.
Together the seven continents cover approx. 149 million km². The rest of the planet, more than 70%, is ocean.
What is geography?
Geographers ask two big questions: where something is, and why it is there. Why are deserts mostly near the tropics? Why do most people in Egypt live within a few miles of the Nile? Why does Britain have wet weather but Spain have dry summers? Geography answers all of these by looking at the planet as one connected system.
Land and water
About 29% of Earth's surface is land, split into seven continents. The other 71% is water, almost all of it in the oceans. Every continent has its own mix of biomes, from deserts and rainforests to grasslands, forests and tundra. Mountains and rivers cross those biomes, while oceans separate the continents and connect them at the same time.
Climate and weather
Climate is the long-term pattern of weather a place gets. Three things mostly decide it: how far the place is from the equator (latitude), how high it sits above sea level (altitude), and how close it is to a large body of water. The same three factors decide which biome a place ends up in.
People and the planet
Around 8 billion people live on Earth today, spread very unevenly. Asia alone holds nearly 60% of everyone. Most large cities sit on rivers or coasts because water has always been vital for drinking, growing food, and getting around. Almost everything humans do, from farming to building cities, is shaped by the geography of where they do it.
Natural forces that shape the land
Earth's surface looks still, but it is always moving. Slow forces like plate tectonics push mountains up over millions of years. Faster forces like rivers, wind, ice and waves wear them down again. Sudden events like volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, hurricanes and tsunamis can reshape a coast or a valley in minutes.
Deeper dive: the five themes of geography
Geographers often organise the subject around five big themes. Knowing them turns geography from a list of facts into a way of seeing the world.
- Location. Where something is, both as a precise spot on a map (latitude and longitude) and in relation to other places.
- Place. What makes one spot different from another: its climate, its plants and animals, the people who live there, the buildings they build.
- Human-environment interaction. How people change their environment and how the environment changes them.
- Movement. The flow of people, goods, ideas, animals, water and air between places.
- Regions. Areas that share important features, like climate (the Sahara) or culture (Europe) or political boundaries (a country).
Pick a topic below to explore further. There is a fact file for every continent, biome, named desert, mountain, river, ocean, and famous landmark on Earth.