Africa

Location & geography

Africa sits at the crossroads of two oceans. The Atlantic borders the west, the Indian Ocean the east, and via the Suez Canal the continent meets Asia. The equator cuts through Africa almost exactly in the middle, so both the northern and southern hemispheres contain large portions of land. To the north, Africa faces Europe across the Mediterranean Sea.

The continent has a remarkable variety of landscapes. The Sahara, at around 9 million km², is the world's largest hot desert and covers nearly a third of Africa. To its south lies the arid transition zone, the Sahel. In the centre of the continent, the Congo rainforest stretches out as the world's second-largest tropical rainforest, surpassed only by the Amazon in South America. In the east, the Great Rift Valley — one of the most spectacular tectonic structures on Earth — runs from the Red Sea down to Mozambique.

The Nile, at around 6,650 km, is — alongside the Amazon — one of the world's longest rivers. It flows through ten countries and was the lifeblood of Egyptian civilisation. In the east, Kilimanjaro in Tanzania rises to 5,895 m as Africa's highest peak and the world's tallest free-standing mountain. In the north-west, the Atlas Mountains reach over 4,000 m along the Moroccan and Algerian coasts.

Population

Africa is home to around 1.55 billion people in 2025 (UN WPP 2024) — nearly 19% of the world's population. The continent is growing at roughly 2.2% per year, by far the fastest rate of any continent. For comparison, Asia is growing at less than 1% per year. That difference means Africa is expected to hold more than 2.5 billion people by 2050 and represent over 25% of humanity.

Africa also has the youngest population of any continent. The median age is below 20 — in some countries even below 16. This contrasts sharply with Europe, where the median age is above 44. This demographic profile offers enormous potential for the workforce, but also demands major investment in education, healthcare and employment.

The population is unevenly spread across the continent. The most densely settled areas are along the Nile Valley in Egypt, in the west around the Gulf of Guinea (Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast) and in the Great Lakes region of east and central Africa. Compare the figures with other continents on the comparison page or consult the list of most populous countries in the world.

Climate & seasons

Africa has virtually every climate type found on Earth. Around the equator — particularly in the Congo Basin and along the Guinea Coast — a tropical rainforest climate prevails with high temperatures and heavy rainfall year-round. Surrounding that are savanna belts with a pronounced dry season and a wet season.

The Sahara in the north and the Kalahari in the south are arid desert climates. At the northern tip of the continent — Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya — a Mediterranean climate brings dry summers and mild, wet winters. At the southern tip around Cape Town, the same Mediterranean pattern repeats in the southern hemisphere. Higher mountain ranges such as Kilimanjaro and the Atlas Mountains have their own alpine climate. More detail on climate zones and the best times to visit each region is on Africa's climate.

Plants & animals

Africa is world-famous for its savanna wildlife. The so-called Big Five — lion, African elephant, Cape buffalo, leopard and rhinoceros — draw millions of visitors each year to national parks such as the Serengeti in Tanzania and Kruger in South Africa. The giraffe is the tallest living land animal; the hippopotamus, tied to rivers and lakes, is one of the most dangerous animals on the continent.

In the Congo rainforest live two species of gorilla: the western lowland gorilla and the critically endangered mountain gorilla (IUCN: Endangered), of which only a small population remains in the highlands of DR Congo, Rwanda and Uganda. The wealth of butterflies, birds and freshwater fish makes Africa a remarkable continent for biologists too. More species and their conservation status are on animals of Africa.

History & culture

Africa is often called the birthplace of humanity — and rightly so. The earliest fossils of Homo sapiens were found in Ethiopia and date back around 300,000 years. From Africa, our ancestors spread across the rest of the world in a process anthropologists call Out of Africa.

Civilisations such as ancient Egypt along the Nile, the Kingdom of Kush in Sudan and the city-states of East Africa were among the most advanced of their time. Later, trans-Saharan trade routes flourished; gold and salt made empires such as Mali and Songhai great. The colonial period of the 19th and early 20th centuries left deep marks on borders, languages and governance — but also gave rise to a pan-African movement that led to the independence of most countries between 1957 and 1975.

Economy & cities

Africa holds an extraordinary wealth of natural resources: oil and gas in Nigeria and Angola, cobalt and copper in DR Congo and Zambia, gold and platinum in South Africa, and phosphates in Morocco. That mineral richness does not always translate into broad prosperity for the population, however.

The largest economies are Nigeria, South Africa, Egypt and Ethiopia. Lagos, Africa's largest city with around 16 million people in the urban core, is one of the fastest-growing metropolises in the world. Nairobi in Kenya is the technological hub of East Africa, with a thriving start-up scene. The African Union's free-trade area (AfCFTA), launched in 2021, aims to create a single internal market across all 54 countries — the world's largest free-trade area by number of participating nations.