North America is a continent located in the Northern and Western Hemispheres, bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, the Caribbean Sea and South America to the southeast, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south. It includes territories such as Canada, the United States, Mexico, Greenland, and the Caribbean islands.
Covering about 24.7 million square kilometers (9.5 million square miles), North America represents approximately 16.5% of the Earth’s land area and 4.8% of its total surface area. It is the third-largest continent by size and the fourth by population, with over 592 million residents in 23 independent states as of 2021, making up around 7.5% of the world’s population.
In geographical contexts, “North America” can refer to Canada, the United States, Mexico, and Greenland, or just Canada and the U.S. Depending on the classification, Greenland may be considered Arctic or European, and Mexico is typically classified as Latin American.
Image Credit: By Bosonic dressing – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7072024
