Africa is a continent of extremes. It’s extremely
large, extremely dry,and
extremely young. In fact, over half the
continent is under the age of 25. Read on to
find out 25 interesting facts that you might not
know about Africa.



25 All of Africa was colonized by
foreign powers during the
“scramble for Africa”, except
Ethiopia and Liberia
24 There are 54 countries and one
“non-self governing territory”, the
Western Sahara, in Africa.
23 Before colonial rule Africa
comprised up to 10,000 different
states and autonomous groups
with distinct languages and
customs.
22 Arabic is spoken by 170 million
people on the continent, followed in
popularity by English (130 million),
Swahili (100), French (115), Berber
(50), Hausa (50), Portuguese (20)
and Spanish (10).
21 Over 25% of all languages are
spoken only in Africa with over
2,000 recognised languages spoken
on the continent.
20 Africa is the second most populous
continent with about 1.1 billion
people or 16% of the world’s
population.
19 Over 50% of Africans are under the
age of 25.
18 The continent’s population will
more than double to 2.3 billion
people by 2050.
17 Africa is the world’s poorest and
most underdeveloped continent
with a continental GDP that
accounts for just 2.4% of global
GDP.
16 Almost 40% of adults in Africa are
illiterate
15 The Second Congo War claimed
over 5.4 million lives and is the
deadliest worldwide conflict since
World War II.
14 There are fewer people with
internet connections in Africa than
there are in just New York City.
13 The Sahara is the largest desert in
the world and is bigger than the
continental USA.
12 Africa is the world’s second driest
continent (after Australia).
11 There are over 1 million Chinese
citizens on the African continent.
Angola alone has a population of
over 350,000 Chinese.
10 Deforestation rates in Africa are
twice the average for the rest of
the world with more than four
million hectares of primary forest
disappearing every year.
9 Lake Victoria is the largest lake in
Africa and the second-largest
freshwater lake in the world.
8 Megafauna like giraffe, zebra,
gorilla, hippopotamus, chimpanzee
and wildebeest are unique to the
continent and only found here.
7 Lake Malawi has more fish species
than any other freshwater system
on earth.
6 Africa has over 85% of the world’s
elephants and over 99% of the
remaining lions are on the African
continent.
5 The Nile River is the longest river
in the world with a total length of
6,650 kilometres.
4 The Serengeti (Tanzania) hosts the
world’s largest wildlife migration
on Earth with over 750,000 zebra
marching ahead of 1.2 million
wildebeest as they cross this
amazing landscape.
3 Africa has over 25% of the world’s
bird species.
2 Over 1,270 large dams have been
built along the continent’s many
rivers.
1 Over 90% of soils are unsuitable for
agriculture and only 0.25% has
moderate to low potential for
sustainable farming.
Above all Africa is my home

The longest serving president is in Africa.