Asia, the largest of the Earth's seven continents. With outlying islands, it covers an estimated 44,936,000 sq km (17,350,000 sq mi), or about one-third of the world's total land area. Its peoples account for at least three-fifths of the world's population; in the early 1990s Asia had more than 3.4 billion inhabitants. Lying almost entirely in the northern hemisphere, Asia is bounded on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the Bering Strait and the Pacific Ocean, on the south by the Indian Ocean, and on the south-west by the Red and Mediterranean seas. On the west, the conventional boundary between Europe and Asia is drawn at the Ural Mountains, continuing south along the Ural River to the Caspian Sea, then west along the Caucasus Mountains to the Black Sea. Many geographers prefer to regard the land mass formed by Europe and Asia as a single continent-Eurasia.

The continental mainland stretches from the southern end of the Malay Peninsula to Cape Chelyuskin in Siberia. Its westernmost point is Cape Baba in north-western Turkey, and its easternmost point is Cape Dezhnyov in north-eastern Siberia. The continent's greatest width from east to west is about 8,500 km (5,300 mi). In Asia are found both the lowest and highest points on the Earth's surface, namely, the shore of the Dead Sea (395 m/1,296 ft below sea level) and Mount Everest (8,848 m/29,028 ft above sea level). To the south-east of the mainland is an array of archipelagos and islands, extending east to Oceania. They include the islands of Indonesia and the Philippines, including Sumatra, Java, Celebes (Sulawesi), Borneo, and New Guinea. To the north lie Taiwan, the islands of Japan, and Sakhalin. Sri Lanka and smaller island groups such as the Maldives, and the Andaman and Nicobar islands lie in the Indian Ocean.