- There are 54 countries and one “non-self governing territory”, the Western Sahara, in Africa.
- African continent is the world’s oldest populated area.
- Africa is the second most populous continent with about 1.1 billion people.
- The continent’s population will more than double to 2.3 billion people by 2050.
- The Nile River is the longest river in the world with a total length of 6,650 kilometres.
- Africa is the world’s poorest and most underdeveloped continent with a continental GDP that accounts for just 2.4% of global GDP.
- Almost 40% of adults in Africa are illiterate
- The Second Congo War claimed over 5 million lives and is the deadliest worldwide conflict since World War II.
- Africa is the world’s second largest continent covering about over 30 million square kilometers
- The Sahara is the largest desert in the world and is bigger than the continental USA.
- Africa is home to the world’s largest living land animal, the African elephant, which can weigh up to 7 tons.
- Africa has approximately 30% of the earth’s remaining mineral resources.
- The continent has the largest reserves of precious metals with over 40% of the gold reserves, over 60% of the cobalt, and 90% of the platinum reserves.
- Africa has over 85% of the world’s elephants and over 99% of the remaining lions are on the African continent.
- China is Africa’s top trade partner with Sino-African trade volumes now nearing $200 billion per year.
- Over 240 million Africans suffer from chronic undernourishment.
- Productivity of about 65% of the continents agricultural lands has declined significantly with vast tracts of land have been degraded by erosion, poor land management practices, mining and pollution over the last 50 years.
- Some landscapes are estimated to lose over 50 metric tonnes of soil per hectare per year due to neglect and desertification.
- Six of the top ten countries with the largest annual net loss of forested area are in Africa.
