Europe

Europe is one of the seven traditional continents of the Earth. The term continent here refers to a cultural and political distinction rather than a physiographic one, leading to various perspectives about Europe's precise borders. Physically and geologically, Europe is the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, west of Asia. Europe is bounded to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the west by the Atlantic Ocean, to the south by the Mediterranean Sea, and to the southeast by the waterways adjoining the Mediterranean to and including the Black Sea and the Caucasus Mountains (in Caucasia). On the east, Europe is divided from Asia by the water divide of the Ural Mountains and by the Caspian Sea.

Europe is the world's second-smallest continent in terms of area, covering about 10 400 000 square kilometres (4,010,000 sq mi) or 2.0% of the Earth's surface. The only continent smaller than Europe is Australia. In terms of population, it is the third-largest continent (after Asia and Africa) with a population of some 710,000,000, or about 11% of the world's population.

The European Union – comprising 25 member states, with two countries acceding in 2007 (Bulgaria and Romania) and two candidates in accession negotiations (Turkey and Croatia) – is the largest political and economic entity covering the European continent, while Russia (excluding portions in Asia) is the second largest entity and Europe's largest state in area and population.