Asia
Benua Asia merupakan wilayah yang mencakup daratan luas Afrika-Eurasia tanpa Eropa dan Afrika. Batas antara Asia dan Eropa sangat kabur, yakni berasa di wilayah Dardanella, Laut Marmara, selat Bosforus, Laut Hitam, pegunungan Kaukasus, Laut Kaspia, Sungai Ural (atau Sungai Emba), dan Pegunungan Ural hingga Novaya Zemlya, sedangkan dengan Afrika, Asia bertemu di sekitar Terusan Suez. Sekitar 60% populasi dunia tinggal di Asia. Lihat pula Eurasia.
Wilayah Asia merupakan benua Asia ditambah kepulauan di sekitar Samudera Indonesia dan Pasifik.
Pembagian wilayah
Sebagaimana telah disebutkan, Asia dapat dianggap sebagai suatu bagian dari benua Eurasia yang lebih besar. Untuk pembagian berdasarkan istilah ini, lihat Eurasia Utara dan Eurasia Tengah.
Asia sendiri sering dibagi-bagi menjadi beberapa wilayah:
Istilah ini jarang dipakai dalam geografi, namun biasanya merujuk pada Asia di wilayah Rusia, atau lebih dikenal sebagai Siberia. Kadang bagian utara negara-negara Asia lainnya seperti Kazakhstan dimasukkan ke dalam Asia Utara.
Tidak ada konsensus pasti tentang penggunaan istilah ini, namun biasanya mencakup
- Republik Asia Tengah Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, dan Kyrgyzstan.
- Afghanistan, Mongolia, dan (kadang) bagian barat Cina.
Istilah ini mencakup
- Kepulauan Pasifik Taiwan dan Jepang.
- Korea Utara dan Selatan di Semenanjung Korea.
- Cina, wilayah timur
Sometimes the nation of Mongolia is also included with East Asia.
This region contains the Malay Peninsula, Indochina and islands in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean. The countries it contains are:
- In Maritime Southeast Asia, the countries of Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Indonesia, Brunei and East Timor.
The country of Malaysia is divided in two by the South China Sea, and thus has both a mainland and island part.
South Asia is also referred to as the Indian Subcontinent. It includes:
- the Himalayan States of India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh
- the Indian Ocean nations of Sri Lanka and the Maldives.
It can also be called the Middle East, although that term is occasionally used to also refer to countries in North Africa. Southwest Asia can be further divided into:
- Anatolia, which includes the nation of Turkey
- The island nation of Cyprus in the Mediterranean Sea.
- The Levant or Near East, which includes Syria, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq.
- The Arabian peninsula, including Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Yemen and occasionally Kuwait.
- The Caucasus region, including the nations of Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia.
- The Iranian Plateau, containing Iran and parts of other nations.
Also see Gulf States, for a different grouping involving several of the above countries.
Population density
This is a list of countries/dependencies by population density in inhabitants/km2.
Unlike the figures in the country articles, the figures in this table are based on areas including inland water bodies (lakes, reservoirs, rivers) and may therefore be lower here.
The whole of Russia, Egypt, and Turkey are referred to in the table, although they are only partly in Asia. Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan have been included, although they can also be considered part of Europe.
West Bank and Gaza Strip are not listed separately, but combined as Palestinian territories.
| country | pop. dens. | area | population |
|---|---|---|---|
| (/km2) | (km2) | (2002-07-01 est.) | |
| Macau (PRC) | 18,000 | 25 | 461,833 |
| Hong Kong (PRC) | 6,688 | 1,092 | 7,303,334 |
| Singapore | 6,430 | 693 | 4,452,732 |
| Maldives | 1,070 | 300 | 320,165 |
| Bahrain | 987 | 665 | 656,397 |
| Bangladesh | 926 | 144,000 | 133,376,684 |
| Republic of China (Taiwan, Quemoy, Matsu) | 627 | 35,980 | 22,548,009 |
| Palestinian territories | 545 | 6,220 | 3,389,578 |
| South Korea | 491 | 98,480 | 48,324,000 |
| Lebanon | 354 | 10,400 | 3,677,780 |
| Japan | 336 | 377,835 | 126,974,628 |
| India | 318 | 3,287,590 | 1,045,845,226 |
| Sri Lanka | 298 | 65,610 | 19,576,783 |
| Israel | 290 | 20,770 | 6,029,529 |
| Philippines | 282 | 300,000 | 84,525,639 |
| Vietnam | 246 | 329,560 | 81,098,416 |
| North Korea | 184 | 120,540 | 22,224,195 |
| Nepal | 184 | 140,800 | 25,873,917 |
| Pakistan | 184 | 803,940 | 147,663,429 |
| People's Republic of China (Mainland) | 134 | 9,596,960 | 1,284,303,705 |
| Thailand | 121 | 514,000 | 62,354,402 |
| Indonesia | 121 | 1,919,440 | 231,328,092 |
| Kuwait | 118 | 17,820 | 2,111,561 |
| Armenia | 112 | 29,800 | 3,330,099 |
| Syria | 93 | 185,180 | 17,155,814 |
| Azerbaijan | 90 | 86,600 | 7,798,497 |
| Turkey | 86 | 780,580 | 67,308,928 |
| Georgia | 71 | 69,700 | 4,960,951 |
| Cambodia | 71 | 181,040 | 12,775,324 |
| Egypt | 71 | 1,001,450 | 70,712,345 |
| Qatar | 69 | 11,437 | 793,341 |
| Malaysia | 69 | 329,750 | 22,662,365 |
| East Timor | 63 | 15,007 | 952,618 |
| Myanmar | 62 | 678,500 | 42,238,224 |
| Brunei | 61 | 5,770 | 350,898 |
| Jordan | 58 | 92,300 | 5,307,470 |
| Uzbekistan | 57 | 447,400 | 25,563,441 |
| Iraq | 55 | 437,072 | 24,001,816 |
| Tajikistan | 47 | 143,100 | 6,719,567 |
| Bhutan | 45 | 47,000 | 2,094,176 |
| Afghanistan | 43 | 647,500 | 27,755,775 |
| Iran | 40 | 1,648,000 | 66,622,704 |
| Yemen | 35 | 527,970 | 18,701,257 |
| United Arab Emirates | 30 | 82,880 | 2,445,989 |
| Laos | 24 | 236,800 | 5,777,180 |
| Kyrgyzstan | 24 | 198,500 | 4,822,166 |
| Oman | 13 | 212,460 | 2,713,462 |
| Saudi Arabia | 12 | 1,960,582 | 23,513,330 |
| Turkmenistan | 9.6 | 488,100 | 4,688,963 |
| Russia | 8.5 | 17,075,200 | 144,978,573 |
| Kazakhstan | 6.2 | 2,717,300 | 16,741,519 |
| Mongolia | 1.7 | 1,565,000 | 2,694,432 |