10 Cool Facts About Africa

Africa has influenced the world in many ways, but for all the vast benefits we’ve received from the continent, we’re barely even scraping the surface of what goes on in this diverse continent. Discover a few cool facts about Africa that you may not know.

1. With 1.1 billion people, Africa is the second most populous continent and accounts for about 16% of the global population.

2. Over 25% of all recognized global languages are spoken in Africa alone. Given that there are about 6,500 recognized languages, this brings us to a total of 1,625 Africa-specific  languages.

Image Credit: spectraspeaks

3. Uganda is the most entrepreneurial country in the world. A research by Approved Index shows that 28% of its adult population started businesses in the last 42 months, which is almost twice as high as any other country in the world.

Image Credit: Flickr/IICD

3. There are about 1 million Chinese citizens currently living in Africa. 35% of these live in the country of Angola.

Image Credit: AFP

4. Africa is the world’s youngest continent with over 50% of its people currently under the age of 25.

Image Credit: African Leadership Academy

5. Lake Victoria, located  in East Africa, is the world’s second largest freshwater lake.

Image Credit: Travel Affairs

6.The river Nile is the world’s longest river with a total length of 6,650 Kilometres.

Image Credit: aurecon

7. Lake Malawi has more fish species than any other known freshwater system on earth.

Image Credit: suretravelblog

9. 25% of all the world’s bird species live in Africa.

Image Credit, Flicker.com

10. Before colonial rule, Africa contained about 10,000 different states and with unique customs and cultures.

Image Credit: The Florida Center for Instructional Technology

(Header Image Credit: African Leadership Academy)