Name of region  Continental regions as per UN categorisations (map). Depending on definitions, various territories cited below (notes 2, 7-10, 12-14, 16-18) may be in one or both of Asia and Europe, Africa, or Oceania. and territory, with flag	Area (km²)	Population (1 July 2002 est.)	Population density (per km²)! Capital
Central Asia:
Kazakhstan  Kazakhstan is sometimes considered a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe; population and area figures are for Asian portion only.	2,346,927	13,472,593	5.7	Astana
Kyrgyzstan	198,500	4,822,166	24.3	Bishkek
Tajikistan	143,100	6,719,567	47.0	Dushanbe
Turkmenistan	488,100	4,688,963	9.6	Ashgabat
Uzbekistan	447,400	25,563,441	57.1	Tashkent
Eastern Asia:
People's Republic of China  The current state is formally known as the People's Republic of China (PRC), which is subsumed by the titular entity and civilisation. Figures given are for mainland China only, and do not include Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan.	9,584,492	1,315,844,000	134.0	Beijing
Hong Kong (PRC)  Hong Kong is a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the PRC.	1,092	7,041,000	6,688.0	â€"
Japan	377,835	128,085,000	336.1	Tokyo
Macau (PRC)  Macau is a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the PRC.	25	488,144	18,473.3	â€"
Mongolia	1,565,000	2,832,224	1.7	Ulaanbaatar
North Korea	120,540	23,113,019	184.4	Pyongyang
South Korea	98,480	47,817,000	490.7	Seoul
Taiwan (Republic of China)  Figures are for the area under the de facto control of the ROC government. Claimed in whole by the PRC; see political status of Taiwan.	35,980	22,548,009	626.7	Taipei
Northern Asia:
Russia  Russia is generally considered a transcontinental country in Eastern Europe and Northern Asia; population and area figures are for Asian portion only.	13,115,200	39,129,729	3.0	Moscow
Southeastern Asia:   Timor-Leste is sometimes considered a transcontinental country. It is geographically in Oceania (Melanesia), but has historical and sociopolitical connections with Southeastern Asia.
Brunei	5,770	350,898	60.8	Bandar Seri Begawan
Cambodia	181,040	12,775,324	70.6	Phnom Penh
East Timor	14,609	1,040,880	69	Dili
Indonesia  Indonesia is generally considered a transcontinental country in Southeastern Asia and Oceania (Melanesia); population and area figures are for Asian portion only, west of the Wallace line.	1,158,645	208,176,381	179.7	Jakarta
Laos	236,800	5,777,180	24.4	Vientiane
Malaysia	329,750	24,429,944	68.7	Kuala Lumpur
Myanmar (Burma)	678,500	42,238,224	62.3	Naypyidaw
Philippines	300,000	84,525,639	281.8	Manila
Singapore	693	4,452,732	6,425.3	Singapore
Thailand	514,000	62,354,402	121.3	Bangkok
Vietnam	329,560	81,098,416	246.1	Hanoi
Southern Asia:
Afghanistan	647,500	29,863,000	42.9	Kabul
Bangladesh	144,000	141,822,000	985	Dhaka
Bhutan	47,000	2,232,291	44.6	Thimphu
India   Includes Jammu and Kashmir, a contested territory among India, Pakistan, and the PRC [1]	3,287,590	1,103,371,000	318.2	New Delhi
Iran	1,648,000	68,467,413	40.4	Tehran
Maldives	300	329,000	1,067.2	Malé
Nepal	140,800	27,133,000	183.8	Kathmandu
Pakistan	803,940	163,985,373	183.7	Islamabad
Sri Lanka	65,610	20,743,000	298.4	Colombo
Western Asia:
Armenia  Armenia is sometimes considered a transcontinental country: geographically in Western Asia, it has historical and sociopolitical connections with Europe.	33,300	3,016,000	111.7	Yerevan
Azerbaijan  Azerbaijan is often considered a transcontinental country in Western Asia and Eastern Europe; population and area figures are for Asian portion only. Naxçivan is an autonomous exclave of Azerbaijan bordered by Armenia, Iran, and Turkey.	41,370	3,479,127	84.1	Baku
Bahrain	665	656,397	987.1	Manama
Cyprus  The island of Cyprus is sometimes considered a transcontinental territory: in the Eastern Basin of the Mediterranean Sea south of Turkey, it has historical and sociopolitical connections with Europe. The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), distinct from the de jure Republic of Cyprus in the south (with a predominantly Greek population), is recognised only by Turkey.	9,250	775,927	83.9	Nicosia
Gaza  Gaza and West Bank, collectively referred to as the "Occupied Palestinian Territory" by the UN, are territories partially occupied by Israel but under de facto administration of the Palestinian National Authority.	363	1,203,591	3,315.7	Gaza
Georgia  Georgia is often considered a transcontinental country in Western Asia and Eastern Europe; population and area figures are for Asian portion only.	20,460	2,032,004	99.3	Tbilisi
Iraq	437,072	24,001,816	54.9	Baghdad
Israel	20,770	6,029,529	290.3	Jerusalem
Jordan	92,300	5,307,470	57.5	Amman
Kuwait	17,820	2,111,561	118.5	Kuwait City
Lebanon	10,400	3,677,780	353.6	Beirut
Naxçivan (Azerbaijan)	5,500	365,000	66.4	Naxçivan
Oman	212,460	2,713,462	12.8	Muscat
Qatar	11,437	793,341	69.4	Doha
Saudi Arabia	1,960,582	23,513,330	12.0	Riyadh
Syria	185,180	17,155,814	92.6	Damascus
Turkey  Turkey is generally considered a transcontinental country in Western Asia and Southern Europe; population and area figures are for Asian portion only, excluding all of Istanbul.	756,768	57,855,068	76.5	Ankara
United Arab Emirates	82,880	2,445,989	29.5	Abu Dhabi
West Bank	5,860	2,303,660	393.1	â€"
Yemen	527,970	18,701,257	35.4	Sanaá
- style=" font-weight:bold; "	Total	43,549,241	3,793,712,193	87.1

Notes:

Economy

Economy of Asia
During 2003 unless otherwise stated

Population:	3,862,000,000 (2004)
GDP (PPP):	US$18.077 trillion
GDP (Currency):	$8.782 trillion
GDP/capita (PPP):	$4,518
GDP/capita (Currency):	$2,195
Annual growth of per capita GDP:
Income of top 10%:
Millionaires:	2.0 million (0.05%)
Unemployment
Estimated female income
Most numbers are from the UNDP from 2002, some numbers exclude certain countries for lack of information.

In terms of gross domestic product (PPP), the largest national economy within Asia is that of the Japan. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the economies of China and India have been growing rapidly, both with an average annual growth rate of more than 7 percent. Japan has the world's second-largest economy after the United States, followed by People's Republic of China and India.

However, in terms of exchange rates (nominal GDP), Japan has the largest economy in Asia and second-largest of any single nation in the world, after surpassing the Soviet Union (measured in net material product) in 1986 and Germany in 1968. (NB: A number of supernational economies are larger, such as the EU, NAFTA or APEC). Economic growth in Asia since World War II to the 1990s had been concentrated in few countries of the Pacific Rim, and has spread more recently to other regions.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Japan's economy was almost as large as that of the rest of the continent combined. In 1995, Japan's economy nearly equalled that of the USA to tie the largest economy in the world for a day, after the Japanese currency reached a record high of 79 yen. But since then, Japan's currency has corrected and China has grown to be the second-largest Asian economy, followed by India, in terms of exchange rates. It is expected that China will surpass Japan in currency terms to have the largest nominal GDP in Asia within a decade or two.

Trade blocs:
*Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation
*Asia-Europe Economic Meeting
*Association of Southeast Asian Nations
*Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement
*Commonwealth of Independent States
*South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation
*South Asia Free Trade Agreement (proposed)

Natural resources

Asia is the largest continent in the world by a considerable margin, and it is rich in natural resources, such as petroleum and iron.

High productivity in agriculture, especially of rice, allows high population density of countries in the warm and humid area. Other main agricultural products include wheat and chicken.

Forestry is extensive throughout Asia, except in Southwest and Central Asia. Fishing is a major source of food in Asia, particularly in Japan.

Manufacturing

Manufacturing in Asia has traditionally been strongest in East and Southeast Asia, particularly in mainland China, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea and Singapore. The industry varies from manufacturing cheap goods such as toys to high-tech products such as computers and cars. Many companies from Europe, North America, and Japan have significant operations in Asia's developing countries to take advantage of its abundant supply of cheap labor.

One of the major employers in manufacturing in Asia is the textile industry. Much of the world's supply of clothing and footwear now originates in Southeast Asia.

Financial and other services

Asia has three main financial centers: in Hong Kong, Singapore and Tokyo. Call centers and business process outsourcing (BPOs) are becoming major employers in India and the Philippines, due to the availability of a large pool of highly skilled English speaking workforce. The rise of the business process outsourcing industry has seen the rise of India and China as other financial centers.

Early history

Map of Asia published in 1892.

The history of Asia can be seen as the distinct histories of several peripheral coastal regions East Asia, South Asia, and the Middle East linked by the interior mass of the Central Asian steppes.

The coastal periphery was home to some of the world's earliest known civilizations, each of them developing around fertile river valleys. The civilizations in Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley, and the Yangtze shared many similarities. These civilizations may well have exchanged technologies and ideas such as mathematics and the wheel. Other innovations, such as writing, seem to have been developed individually in each area. Cities, states and empires developed in these lowlands.

The central steppe region had long been inhabited by horse-mounted nomads who could reach all areas of Asia from the steppes. The earliest postulated expansion out of the steppe is that of the Indo-Europeans, who spread their languages into the Middle East, India, and the borders of China, where the Tocharians resided. The northernmost part of Asia, including much of Siberia, was largely inaccessible to the steppe nomads, owing to the dense forests, climate, and tundra. These areas remained very sparsely populated.

The center and the peripheries were mostly kept separated by mountains and deserts. The Caucasus and Himalaya mountains and the Karakum and Gobi deserts formed barriers that the steppe horsemen could cross only with difficulty. While technologically and socially, the urban city dwellers were more advanced, in many cases they could do little in a military aspect to defend against the mounted hordes of the steppe. However, the lowlands did not have enough open grasslands to support a large horsebound force; for this and other reasons, the nomads who conquered states in China, India, and the Middle East often found themselves adapting to the local, more affluent societies.

Languages and literature

Asia is home to several language families and many language isolates. Most Asian countries have more than one language that is natively spoken. For instance, according to Ethnologue, more than 600 languages are spoken in Indonesia, and more than 100 are spoken in the Philippines. But Korea is home to only one language.

Nobel prizes

Rabindranath Tagore, the first Asian Nobel laureate.

The polymath Rabindranath Tagore, a Bengali poet, dramatist, and writer who was an Indian, became in 1913 the first Asian Nobel laureate. He won his Nobel Prize in Literature for notable impact his prose works and poetic thought had on English, French, and other national literatures of Europe and the Americas. He also wrote the Indian anthem

Other Asian writers who won Nobel Prizes include Yasunari Kawabata (Japan, 1966), and Kenzaburo Oe (Japan, 1994).

Mythology, philosophy and religion

The story of Great Floods find reference in most of the regions of Asia. The Hindu mythology tells about an avatar of God Vishnu in the form of a fish who warned Manu of a terrible flood. In ancient Chinese mythology Shan Hai Jing, the Chinese ruler Da Yu had to spend 10 years to control a deluge which swept out most of ancient China and was aided by the goddess Nuwa who "fixed" the "broken" sky through which huge rains were pouring.

Philosophy

Asian philosophical traditions originated in India and China and cover a large spectrum of philosophical thoughts and writings. Indian philosophy includes Hindu philosophy and Buddhist philosophy. They include elements of nonmaterial pursuits, whereas another school of thought from India, Carvaka, preached the enjoyment of material world.

Taoism was founded by Chinese philosopher Lao Zi, who lived 605-520 B.C. Buddhism was founded by Siddhartha Gautama, who lived 563-483 B.C.

During the 20th century, in the two most populous countries of Asia, two dramatically different political philosophies took shape. Gandhi gave a new meaning to Ahimsa, and redefined the concepts of nonviolence and nonresistance. During the same period, Mao Zedong's communist philosophy was crystallized.

Religions

A stone image of the Buddha.

Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism originated in India, a country of South Asia. In East Asia, particularly in China and Japan, Confucianism, Taoism, and Shinto took shape. Other religions of Asia include Bahá'í Faith, Shamanism practiced in Siberia and Animism, practiced in the eastern parts of the Indian subcontinent.

Today 30% of Muslims live in the South Asian region of Pakistan, India and Bangladesh. The world's largest single Muslim community (within the bounds of one nation) is in Indonesia. There are also significant Muslim populations in the Philippines, China, Central Asia, Iran, and Russia.

In the Philippines and East Timor, Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion; it was introduced by the Spaniards and the Portuguese, respectively. In Armenia, Eastern Orthodoxy is the predominant religion. Various Christian sects have adherents in portions of the Middle East.

A large majority of people in the world who practice a religious faith practice one founded in Asia.

Religions founded in Asia and with a majority of their contemporary adherents in Asia include:
*Animism: Eastern India, Japan, Philippines,
*Bahá'í Faith: slightly more than half of all adherents are in Asia
*Bön: Tibet
*Buddhism: Bhutan, Cambodia, China, Japan, Korea, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam, parts of northern, eastern, and western India, and parts of central and eastern Russia (Siberia).
**Mahayana Buddhism: Bhutan, China, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, parts of the Philippines.
**Theravada Buddhism: Cambodia, parts of China, Chittagong Hill Tracts, West Bengal, Laos, mainly northern parts of Malaysia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, as well as parts of Vietnam.
**Vajrayana Buddhism: Parts of China, Mongolia, Tibet, parts of northern and eastern India, parts of central, eastern Russia and Siberia.
*Daoism: China, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, Vietnam.
*Hinduism: Bangladesh, India, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Bali.
*Islam: Central Asia|Central, South Asia, and Southwest Asia, Maritime Southeast Asia
**Shia Islam: largely to specific Iran, Azerbaijan, parts of Iraq, Bahrain, parts of Afghanistan, parts of India, parts of Pakistan.
**Sunni Islam: dominant in the rest of the regions mentioned above.
*Jainism: India
*Kejawen: Indonesia
*Qadiani: Bangladesh, India, Pakistan.
*Shamanism: Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Siberia.
*Shinto: Japan
*Sikhism: India, Malaysia, Hong Kong.
*Yezidi : Iraq, Iran, Syria, Turkey.
*Zoroastrianism: Iran, India, Pakistan.
*Zikri: Pakistan, Iran.

Religions founded in Asia that have the majority of their contemporary adherents in other regions include:
*Christianity: Armenia, East Timor, Georgia, India, Indonesia, Lebanon, Malaysia, Pakistan, Palestine, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Syria.
*Judaism: slightly fewer than half of its adherents reside in Asia; Israel, India, Iran, Russia, Syria.

Regions

East Asia

East Asia is usually thought to consist of China, Japan, Korea, but may also include Mongolia and Indochina. . The dominant influence historically has been China, though in modern times, cultural exchange has flowed more bidirectionally. Major characteristics of this region include shared Chinese-derived language characteristics, as well as shared religion, especially Buddhism. There is also a shared social and moral philosophy derived from Confucianism.

The Chinese writing is generally agreed to be the unifying principle. It was historically used throughout the region, and is still used to a large extent in most countries of the region. In most cases, the meaning of the characters remain unchanged, but the pronunciation differs between regions. Even within China, for example, a Cantonese person and a person from northern China probably cannot hold a converstaion, but they can certainly understand each other by passing notes. The Chinese writing system is the oldest continuous writing system in the world (but by no means primitive). It was passed on first to Korea, and was the main writing system there until the end of World War II, and to Japan, where it now forms a major component of the Japanese writing system.. In those cultures, especially in China, the educational level of person is traditionally measured by the quality of his or her calligraphy, rather than diction, as is sometimes the case in the west.

Though Korea, Japan, and Vietnam are not Chinese speaking regions, their languages have been heavily influenced by Chinese and Chinese writing. Even though their writing systems have changed over time (with limited use of Chinese characters in Korea and none at all in Vietnam]], Chinese is still found in the historical roots of many borrowed words, especially technical terms.

Apart from the unifying influence of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Chinese characters, there is much diversity between the regions.

South Asia (Indian Subcontinent)

The nations of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal and Sri Lanka share an ethnic background and all have similar cultures. This is largely due to the fact that before the 1947 Partition, India included both Pakistan and Bangladesh in its borders. The reason they were separated was due to varying religious composition in various Indian states.

The Indus Valley Civilization began on the Indus River (Now in Pakistan) by a people known as the Dravidians. In time, however, Aryans invaded the South Asian subcontinent from the north, forcing the Dravidians to the South of India. The Aryans also invaded the island of Sri Lanka and set up the Kingdom of Sinhala. The people eventually mingled to form a common culture.

The 4 major World Religions founded in India (Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism) are spread throughout the subcontinent. While 80% of Indians are Hindus and Nepal is a Hindu State, Sri Lanka has a majority of Buddhists. South Asian culture was influenced somewhat by the arrival of Islam, which based itself in the North-West of India (now in Pakistan), near the borders of Afghanistan.

In 1947, India was split as part of the Partition as a result of the Indian Independence Movement. This partition was on the basis of religion. Many Hindus and Sikhs still live in Pakistan while 12% of Bangladesh's population is Hindu.

Another common feature of these states is the fact that all these countries maintain interests in the same world sports. India and Pakistan were both strong in Field Hockey during the 80s while Cricket is by far the most popular sport in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. With the Indian Cricket Team being one of the earliest International Cricket Teams to be created (after England, Australia and South Africa).

Despite their religious differences, the way of life is still similar in India and Pakistan, because of shared history; and Pakistan differs in some ways from the Middle East. Foods such as chapatis are common in both nations. South Indian foods (from the states Kerala and Tamil Nadu) can be found in Sri Lanka. Bangladeshi ways of life are similar to the people in West Bengal, the Indian North-Eastern State.

See also

*Assuwa
*Asia Minor
*Flags of Asia
*Geography of Asia
*Pan-Asianism
*Asian Century
*Asian Currency Unit
*Asian people
*Asian dance
*Eastern world

References

* "Asia". The Columbia Gazetteer of the World Online. 2005. New York: Columbia University Press.
* World Conflicts: Asia and the Middle East [https://salempress.com/store/samples/world_conflicts_asia/world_conflicts_asia.htm]. Edited by Carl L. Bankston III. New York: Salem Press.

External links

*Asian Food Glossary
*Map Asia

zh-yue:亞洲