Continents

Name: Continents
Creator: staticdata.dev
License: https://opensource.org/licenses/MIT

All seven continents, each identified by a conventional 2-letter code, with total land area in square kilometres, approximate population, and a count of the sovereign states recognised as lying within it. Suitable for dropdown lists, geographic grouping, choropleth maps, and any application that needs a stable, authoritative mapping between continent identifiers and high-level geographic statistics.

v1.0.0 MIT 7 records Updated 2026-10-05 stable Source: United Nations Statistics Division / curated reference data

Quick fetch

Stable URL. CORS-enabled. No auth.

bash

curl https://staticdata.dev/v1/continents.json

Or use as a typed import: import { continents } from "https://staticdata.dev/v1/continents.ts"

Formats

JSON 872 B

/v1/continents.json

Open

min: 618 B · /v1/continents.min.json
CSV 279 B

/v1/continents.csv

Open
TypeScript 1.0 KB

/v1/continents.ts

export const continents

type Continent = (typeof continents)[number]

Open

Schema

Each record in the dataset has the following shape.

Schema
Field	Type	Description	Example
code	string	Conventional 2-letter continent code (e.g. AF, AS, EU)	AF
name	string	English continent name	Africa
areaKm2	number	Total land area in square kilometres	30370000
population	number	Approximate population (mid-2020s estimate)	1460000000
countries	number	Number of sovereign states within the continent	54

Preview

First 7 records.

Data preview
code	name	areaKm2	population	countries
AF	Africa	30370000	1460000000	54
AN	Antarctica	14200000	0	0
AS	Asia	44614000	4750000000	47
EU	Europe	10530000	748000000	43
NA	North America	24709000	604000000	23
OC	Oceania	8526000	45000000	14
SA	South America	17840000	440000000	12

Showing 7 of 7. View full data: JSON · CSV

Fetch examples

Drop-in snippets in five languages.

curl

curl -sSL https://staticdata.dev/v1/continents.json | jq '.[0]'

JavaScript

import type { Continent } from "https://staticdata.dev/v1/continents.ts";

const res = await fetch("https://staticdata.dev/v1/continents.min.json");
if (!res.ok) throw new Error(`Fetch failed: ${res.status}`);
const continents: Continent[] = await res.json();
console.log(continents[0]);

Python

import urllib.request, json

with urllib.request.urlopen("https://staticdata.dev/v1/continents.min.json") as r:
    continents = json.load(r)

print(continents[0])

package main

import (
	"encoding/json"
	"fmt"
	"net/http"
)

func main() {
	resp, err := http.Get("https://staticdata.dev/v1/continents.min.json")
	if err != nil { panic(err) }
	defer resp.Body.Close()

	var data []map[string]any
	if err := json.NewDecoder(resp.Body).Decode(&data); err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}
	fmt.Println(data[0])
}

Rust

use serde_json::Value;

fn main() -> Result<(), Box<dyn std::error::Error>> {
    let body = ureq::get("https://staticdata.dev/v1/continents.min.json").call()?.into_string()?;
    let data: Vec<Value> = serde_json::from_str(&body)?;
    println!("{:?}", data.first());
    Ok(())
}

Sources and methodology

The dataset uses the seven-continent model common in English-language references: Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Europe, North America, Oceania, and South America. The 2-letter codes follow the convention used by GeoNames and many geospatial APIs (AF, AN, AS, EU, NA, OC, SA). Area figures are rounded to the nearest thousand km² and are based on standard physical-geography references; they include inland water bodies within the continental boundary.

Population figures are approximate mid-2020s estimates drawn from UN World Population Prospects and related demographic sources. Antarctica is listed with a population of 0, reflecting the absence of a permanent civilian population (seasonal research staff are excluded). Sovereign country counts follow the UN Statistics Division M49 regions (with the Americas split into North America — Northern America, Central America and the Caribbean — and South America) and count only the 193 UN member states, so they sum to 193: Russia is counted in Europe, Turkey and Cyprus in Asia. Observer states (Vatican City, Palestine), Taiwan, Kosovo and dependent territories are not counted. Population figures are approximate as of the mid-2020s (October 2026 edition).

The dataset is intentionally stable: the list of continents, their codes, and their boundaries change extremely rarely, making version 1.0.0 suitable as a long-lived reference. Population and country counts may be updated in future minor versions to reflect demographic shifts or changes in sovereign recognition.

Versioning

URLs under /v1/ are stable: field names and types will not change in a way that breaks consumers. Values can be corrected or records added when the upstream source changes; schema-incompatible updates ship under a new version path. See the continents changelog for this dataset's history.

Related datasets

countries