The Countries of North America
North America is one of the two continents of the Western Hemisphere (South America is the other). It is bordered by the Pacific Ocean on the west, the Arctic Ocean on the north, the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico on the east, and South America on the south.
The three largest countries of North America are Canada, the United States, and Mexico. It is sometimes claimed that the countries of Central America: Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama, plus the Caribbean islands, Greenland, and numerous other islands are all part of North America.
North America covers approximately 8,460,000 square miles (21,911,000 square kilometers) and is the world's third largest continent after Asia and Africa and is about twice as large as Europe.
North America has slightly more than 8 percent of the world's population, 474,102,000 as of a 2006 estimate, ranking fourth after Asia, Europe, and Africa. The most populous country of the continent is the United States, which has about 60 percent of the continent's people, followed by Mexico, which has about 20 percent.
North America's earliest inhabitants are believed to be Asian who crossed over to Alaska from Asia about 20,000 years ago. These Native Americans who are considered ancestors of the American Indians developed a rich cultural heritage prior to the arrival of Europeans. After Columbus arrived in 1492, Europeans from a number of other countries including Spain, France and Britain began coming to North America.
English and Spanish are the most widely used languages of North America.
Christianity is the predominant faith but most of the world's religions are represented on this continent.
Web Sites
- The Regents of the University of Michigan
- Open Directory Project
- countryreports.org
- worldatlas.com
- cia.gov
- University of New Brunswick Planetary and Space Science Centre
Maps:
Catalog
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Databases
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