North America

North America is the third largest continent in area and in population after Asia and Africa. It is bounded on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the south by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west by the North Pacific Ocean. It covers an area of 9,355,000 square miles (24,230,000 square kilometers). In 2001 its population was estimated at 454,225,000. It can be geographically defined by subtracting South America from the supercontinent of the Americas. Both North and South America are named after Amerigo Vespucci, who was the first European to suggest that the Americas were not the East Indies, but a previously undiscovered New World.

Although Canada, the United States, and Mexico are geographically in North America, in a European mindset, however, North America is often considered to include Canada and the United States, but not Mexico or any of the Central American countries, which in some contexts may cause confusion. In Latin America, the Americas are considered as one continent and therefore North America is only a subcontinent composed by Canada, United States and Mexico.

North America occupies the northern portion of the landmass generally referred to as the New World, the Western Hemisphere, the Americas, or simply America. North America's only land connection is to South America at the narrow Isthmus of Panama and Panama Canal. According to some authorities, North America begins not at the Isthmus of Panama but at the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, with the intervening region called Central America. Most, however, tend to see Central America as a region of North America, considering it too small to be a continent of its own.

Contents

1 Physical features 2 Regional and political divisions 3 Political divisions – area and population data 4 See also 5 Pictures 6 External link

Physical features

The continent can be divided into four great regions (each of which contains many sub-regions): the Great Plains stretching from the Gulf of Mexico to the Canadian Arctic; the geologically young, mountainous west, including the Rocky Mountains, the Great Basin, California and Alaska; the raised but relatively flat plateau of the Canadian Shield in the northeast; and the varied eastern region, which includes the Appalachian Mountains, the coastal plain along the Atlantic seaboard, and the Florida peninsula. Mexico, with its long plateaus and cordilleras, falls largely in the western region, although the eastern coastal plain does extend south along the Gulf.

The western mountains are split in the middle, into the main range of the Rockies and the coast ranges in California, Oregon and Washington state, with the Great Basin – a lower area containing smaller ranges and low-lying deserts – in between. The highest peak is Denali in Alaska.

Since 1931, Rugby, North Dakota, has officially been recognized as being at the geographic center of North America. The location is marked by a 4.5 metre (15 foot) field stone obelisk.

Regional and political divisions

On the main continent itself there are three large and relatively populous countries:

• Canada (some large islands off the shore of North America and belonging to Canada include Vancouver Island and the Queen Charlotte Islands on the west, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Cape Breton Island on the east, and Ellesmere Island, Baffin Island, and Victoria Island in the north)
• Mexico (including the Revillagigedo archipelago and numerous smaller islands closer to the coast)
• United States, most of it – includes the Aleutian Islands, Alaska, but not the US state of Hawaii which lies in the Pacific Ocean

At the extreme southern end of the continent, in a relatively small area called Central America, are the countries of:

• Belize
• Costa Rica
• El Salvador
• Guatemala
• Honduras
• Nicaragua
• Panama ¹

At the extreme southeastern end of the continent lies a chain of islands territories called the Antilles, the Caribbean or the West Indies, which include the states:

• Antigua and Barbuda
• Bahamas
• Barbados
• Cuba
• Dominica
• Dominican Republic
• Grenada
• Haiti
• Jamaica
• Saint Kitts and Nevis
• Saint Lucia
• Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
• Trinidad and Tobago ¹

And the dependencies:

• Anguilla (British dependency)
• Aruba ² (part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands)
• Cayman Islands (British dependency)
• Guadeloupe (overseas department of France)
• Martinique (overseas department of France)
• Montserrat (British dependency)
• Navassa Island (U.S. territory)
• Netherlands Antilles ¹ (part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands)
• Puerto Rico (U.S. commonwealth)
• Turks and Caicos Islands (British dependency)
• British Virgin Islands (British dependency)
• U.S. Virgin Islands (territory of the USA)

Lying in the Atlantic Ocean but considered part of the continent are the dependencies:

• Bermuda, a British dependency found about 1,072 km (670 mi.) southeast of New York City
• Greenland, the largest island in the world and a self-governing dependency of Denmark, which is located in the far north of the continent to the east of Nunavut.
• Saint Pierre and Miquelon, found in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, is the last of France's once vast possessions in America north of the Caribbean.

¹ These states and dependencies have territory both in North and South America.
² These dependencies lie in South America, but are considered North American because of cultural and historical reasons.
See here for details.

The United States, Canada, and the other English-speaking nations of the Americas (Belize, Guyana, and the Anglophone Caribbean) are sometimes grouped under the term Anglo-America, while the remaining nations of North and South America are grouped under the term Latin America.

The term "North America", when employed in a context other than geography, may mean different things to different people. To many Americans and Canadians the term, in common usage, is often taken to mean "The United States of America and Canada, only", excluding Mexico and the countries of Central America, unless the context makes it clear that they are to be included (for instance, with specific reference to Mexico, when talking about NAFTA). This is due to the fact that culturally and economically, the USA and Canada are more alike to each other than they are to the rest of North America. Mexicans, however, are acutely aware that Mexico is a part of North America and object to this usage. Central Americans, however, are generally content to be called Central Americans – largely because of their shared history, which includes several attempts at supranational integration in the region.

Political divisions – area and population data

Name	Area (km²)	Population (2002-07-01 est.)	Population density (per km²)
Anguilla (UK)	102	12,446	122
Antigua and Barbuda	443	67,448	152
Aruba (Neth.)	193	70,441	365
Bahamas	13,940	300,529	22
Barbados	431	276,607	642
Belize	22,966	262,999	11
Bermuda (UK)	53	63,960	1,200
British Virgin Islands (UK)	153	21,272	139
Canada	9,976,140	32,078,819	3.2
Cayman Islands (UK)	262	36,273	138
Costa Rica	51,100	3,834,934	75
Cuba	110,860	11,224,321	101
Dominica	754	70,158	93
Dominican Republic	48,730	8,721,594	179
El Salvador	21,040	6,353,681	302
Greenland (Denm.)	2,166,086	56,376	0.03
Grenada	344	89,211	259
Guadeloupe (Fr.)	1,780	435,739	245
Guatemala	108,890	13,314,079	122
Haiti	27,750	7,063,722	255
Honduras	112,090	6,560,608	59
Jamaica	10,991	2,680,029	244
Martinique (Fr.)	1,100	422,277	384
Mexico	1,972,550	103,400,165	52
Montserrat (UK)	102	8,437	83
Navassa Island (U.S.)	5	0	n/a
Netherlands Antilles (Neth.)	960	214,258	223
Nicaragua	129,494	5,023,818	39
Panama	78,200	2,882,329	37
Puerto Rico (U.S.)	9,104	3,957,988	435
Saint Kitts and Nevis	261	38,736	148
Saint Lucia	616	160,145	260
Saint Pierre and Miquelon (Fr.)	242	6,954	29
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	389	116,394	299
Trinidad and Tobago	5,128	1,104,209	215
Turks and Caicos Islands (UK)	430	18,738	44
United States	9,629,091	280,562,489	29
U.S. Virgin Islands (U.S.)	352	123,498	351
Total	24,497,994	490,354,921	20.0

See also

• Discoverer of the Americas
• Economy of North America
• European colonization of the Americas
• History of North America
• Birds of North America

Pictures

• Pictures of California (http://http://classroomclipart.com/cgi-bin/kids/imageFolio.cgi?direct=Countries_and_Cities/California)
• Pictures of the United States (http://http://classroomclipart.com/cgi-bin/kids/imageFolio.cgi?direct=Countries_and_Cities/United_States)
• Pictures of Mexico (http://http://classroomclipart.com/cgi-bin/kids/imageFolio.cgi?direct=Countries_and_Cities/Mexico)

External link

• http://www.america-norte.com/america-norte-mapa.htm

Continents and regions of the World
Africa | Antarctica | Australia | Eurasia | North America | South America Africa-Eurasia | the Americas | Asia | Europe | Oceania

Regions of the world
Africa:	Central Africa | Congo | East Africa | Great Lakes | Guinea | North Africa | Northwest Africa | Northeast Africa | Sahel | Southern Africa | Sub-Saharan Africa | Sudan | West Africa
Americas:	Andean States | Caribbean | Central America | Great Lakes | Great Plains | Guianas | Latin America | Southern Cone
Asia:	Central Asia | East Asia | East Indies | Far East | Indian subcontinent / South Asia | North Asia | Southeast Asia | Southwest Asia (Middle East, Levant, Anatolia, Arabia)
Europe:	Balkans | Baltic region | Benelux | British Isles | Central Europe | Eastern Europe | Northern Europe | Scandinavia | Southern Europe | Western Europe
Other:	Eurasia: Caucasus | Post-Soviet states | Oceania: Australasia | Melanesia | Micronesia | Polynesia | Aleutia | Pacific Rim | Polar: Arctic | Antarctic