I think they are just using the 48 contiguous states for the US, and dropping out Scandinavia, probably because they wanted to be able to say "Africa is bigger than", rather than "Africa is almost as large as". Also I think they aren't including European Russia.
So that would add almost 4 million square km for European Russia, about 572 thousand square kilometers for Alaska, about 304 thousand sq km for Finland, about 411k for Sweden, about 307 k for Norway, and and a bit under 17k for Hawaii. Maybe a bit over 5 million more square kilometers total. Meaning its not actually true that Africa is larger than the US, China, India, Japan, and all of Europe combined.
Still the basic point that Africa is larger, and that its much larger than many people think it is, is correct. Its the 2nd largest continent, and its bigger than South America and Europe combined. Its also the 2nd largest continent in terms of population, with about as many people as North America, South America, Australia, and Antarctica (which has negligible population on this scale) combined. |
