# Continent Name

Key: `geography.location.continent`

Name of geographic continent (Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, South America, Oceania, Antarctica). Locale-specific.

Page: <https://meridian.online/docs/projects/finetype/types/geography/location/continent>

Samples: `North America`, `Europe`, `Asia`, `Africa`

## Background

### Origin

A continent is any of several large terrestrial geographical regions.[[1]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continent) Continents are generally identified by convention rather than any strict criteria.[[1]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continent) Because definitions vary, the number of continents counted ranges from as many as seven to as few as four.[[1]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continent) Most English-speaking countries recognise seven continents: Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe and Australia.[[1]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continent) The six-continent combined-America model is taught in Greece and many Romance-speaking countries, including in Latin America.[[1]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continent) The six-continent combined-Eurasia model is mostly used in Russia and some parts of Eastern Europe.[[1]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continent)

Geographers often use the term Oceania for a region that includes most of the island countries and territories in the Pacific Ocean as well as the continent of Australia.[[1]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continent) FineType defines the continent type as the name of a geographic continent, validated against seven values: Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, South America, Oceania and Antarctica.[[2]](https://github.com/meridian-online/finetype/blob/main/labels/definitions_geography.yaml) The seven names are a convention rather than a fact of geography, so a column of continents tells you as much about the model its producer chose as about the places in it. (Meridian's view)

### Use

The United Nations Statistics Division prepares the M49 standard, Standard Country or Area Codes for Statistical Use.[[3]](https://unstats.un.org/unsd/methodology/m49/) The UN Statistics Division says the assignment of countries or areas to M49 groupings is for statistical convenience and does not imply any assumption regarding political or other affiliation.[[3]](https://unstats.un.org/unsd/methodology/m49/)

GeoNames publishes two-letter continent codes, among them AF for Africa, NA for North America, OC for Oceania and AN for Antarctica.[[4]](https://download.geonames.org/export/dump/readme.txt) When a continent column holds two-letter codes instead of names, map it through the publisher's code list, and make sure a code such as NA has survived import as text rather than being read as a missing value. (Meridian's view) Settle on one name for the Australian part of the world, whether Australia, Oceania or Australasia, before you group or count. (Meridian's view)

## Sources

1. [Continent - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continent) — secondary source
2. [finetype/labels/definitions\_geography.yaml at main · meridian-online/finetype · GitHub](https://github.com/meridian-online/finetype/blob/main/labels/definitions_geography.yaml) — FineType
3. [UNSD — Methodology](https://unstats.un.org/unsd/methodology/m49/) — documentation
4. [GeoNames export dump readme.txt](https://download.geonames.org/export/dump/readme.txt) — documentation