Asia is the largest of the seven continents and lies almost entirely in the Northern Hemisphere. Including all the distant islands, it covers around 44,391,000 sq km (17,139,000 sq mi), which is around 30 percent of the world's total land area. The people of Asia account for three-fifths of the world's population. Asia is divided into 4 main regions: East Asia, which includes including Mongolia, Korea, China and Japan; Southeast Asia region which includes Thailand, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar (formerly known as Burma), Cambodia, Vietnam, Philippines, Singapore, Brunei and Indonesia. There are parts of the Middle East which are also included in the region under South Asia. |