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Americas

Also known as America, North, Central, and South America, the New World, the Americas, American continent, North and South America

The Americas, sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America and South America. When viewed as a single continent, the Americas are the second largest continent by area after Asia and the third largest continent by population. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and constitute the New World.

OverviewAI-generated

The Americas is a supercontinent and part of the world located on Earth's surface. It comprises South America, North America, Central America, Latin America, and the Caribbean. The subject is distinct from America, the continental United States, and the United States. It is also identified as the New World.

The region is named after Amerigo Vespucci and the Darién Gap. Its highest point is Aconcagua. Discovery is attributed to Christopher Columbus in 1492-10-12, with an earlier date of about 30 thousand years ago also cited. The total area is 42549000. The coordinate location is 19,-96.

The demonym for the region is American, amerikanisch, americano, or Américain. It is described by sources including the Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary, the Jewish Encyclopedia of Brockhaus and Efron, The Nuttall Encyclopædia, and the Orthodox Theological Encyclopedia. The topic has a history of the Americas and is referenced by 8,151 other encyclopedia articles.

Synthesized by Vinony from 26 facts across 4 sources: Wikidata, PubMed, Vinony graph, Geo. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

Key facts

Continent.title: Americas
Continent.area: 42,549,000 km2(16,428,000 sq mi)
Continent.population: 1.02 billion
Continent.density: 22.67/km2 (58.74/sq mi)
Continent.[[HDI]]: North America 0.733, South America 0.738
Continent.demonym: American (see usage)
Continent.countries: 35
Continent.dependencies: 23
Continent.languages: Spanish, English, Portuguese, French, Haitian Creole, Quechua, Guaraní, Aymara, Nahuatl, Dutch, and many others
Continent.time: UTC−10 to UTC+0
Continent.cities: Complete List of largest metropolitan areas and their cities
Continent.m49: 019 – Americas001 – World

via Wikipedia infobox

Research

2,315,624 papers

America's Unrecognized Health Workforce: Postal Workers.Journal of general internal medicine · 2020Pignone MDOI: 10.1007/s11606-020-06080-x
Comment on "Towards a Biocultural Synthesis of the Peopling of the Americas".American journal of biological anthropology · 2025González-José RDOI: 10.1002/ajpa.70148
America's choice.Nature · 2008DOI: 10.1038/4551149a
Preserving America's spirit.Transfusion · 2001Healy B, Thadani RDOI: 10.1046/j.1537-2995.2001.41101185.x
Strengthening Latin America's presence in global health.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2024Ventura D, O'Ryan MDOI: 10.1136/bmj.q716
Indexing America's sleep health.Sleep health · 2017Hirshkowitz MDOI: 10.1016/j.sleh.2017.06.001
America's fresh start.Nature · 2008DOI: 10.1038/455431a
America's new "food pyramid".Lancet (London, England) · 2005

via PubMed

~60 min read

Encyclopedic overview

37 sections

Contents

<span id="Naming">Etymology and naming</span>
Terminology
History
English
Spanish
Portuguese
French
Dutch
History
Pre-Columbian era
Settlement
Norse colonization
Large-scale European colonization
Geography
Extent
Geology
Topography
Climate
Hydrology
Ecology
Countries and territories
Economy
Demographics
Population
Largest urban centers
Ethnology
Black population
Religion
Languages
Culture
Sports
Multinational organizations
See also
Notes
References
Further reading
External links

Along with their associated islands, the Americas cover 8% of Earth's total surface area and 28.4% of its land area. The topography is dominated by the American Cordillera, a long chain of mountains that runs the length of the west coast. The flatter eastern side of the Americas is dominated by large river basins, such as the Amazon, St. Lawrence River–Great Lakes, Mississippi, and La Plata basins. Since the Americas extend from north to south, the climate and ecology vary widely, from the arctic tundra of Northern Canada, Greenland, and Alaska, to the tropical rainforests in Central America and South America.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Americas” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.