how many continents do we have now?
475593
There are 7 continents. \nThey are:\n1. Asia\n2. North America\n3. South America\n4. Europe\n5. Africa\n6. Antarctica\n7. Oceania (formerly called australia)
397444
europe, africa, antarctica, south america, north america
856326
243 entities considered to be countries.\n\nYou could get more information from the link below...
1069650
7.  North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Antarctica, Australia, Africa
761167
Good question, and a tough one to answer, although I'm skeptical of the "all known criteria" piece of it.  I did browse much of the Wikipedia entry, and I also have a globe here to look at.\n\nTo rephrase this question, I guess we could say, (1) why is it not a continent, and (2) why is it a subcontinent?\n\nTraditionally, there are six or seven continents -- North & South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and Antarctica.  Sometimes Europe & Asia are combined into Eurasia, and some people like to combine the Americas.\n\nSize and geographic separation seem to be important ... the Central America connection is pretty narrow, as is the Suez connection.  On the other hand, the Ural mountains separating Europe from Asia is an ancient plate boundary (similar to the Appalachians, and much older than the Himalayas), and the Ural boundary certainly is not "narrow."  In that case, however, there are huge historical cultural differences between, for example, western Europe and East Asia.\n\nIn terms of size, Australia is the smallest continent, and Greenland is the largest island.  India is much closer in size to Greenland than to Australia.  (Also compare Madagascar, a large island drifting away from Africa.  The tectonic activity there is similar to India.)\n\nSo on the question of "why isn't it a continent," I'd say size matters a lot -- India isn't big enough -- and I'd say the closest boundary comparison is between the Himalaya barrier and the Urals.  West of the Urals is much, much larger than south of the Himalayas.\n\nCultural comparisons matter too, and by this measure, India could be considered a continent in its own right.  The Indian population is significantly different than the neighboring Oriental and Caucasian peoples.\n\nWhen you balance all this stuff, I guess you say Europe is its own continent -- it's big and culturally differentiable; but India is not a continent because it's not big enough.\n\nThe other part of the question is, why is it a subcontinent?  There, the Himalayas and, to a lesser extent, the Indian Plate, make a big difference.  Because of the mountains, India is geograpically separated from the rest of Asia.\n\nIt's also a large peninsula.  In this regard, we must compare with the Arabian Peninsula (which sits on the Arabian Plate), and maybe with Asia Minor, the boundary of which (by looking at a globe) may be said to extend from the Persion Gulf to the eastern end of the Black Sea, thus comprising a large area encompassing Turkey, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia.  The other obvious large peninsula is Western Europe itself, bounded on the east by a line extending from the Black Sea to the Baltic.\n\nBut neither of those peninsulas have the Himalaya Mountain barrier.\n\nSo putting that altogether, I guess that's why India is a subcontinent and not a continent.  And since it seems to be the only generally recognized subcontinent in the world, that makes it pretty unique.
732902
There are definitely more mountain ranges than continents.  Think of it this way, there can be several mountain ranges on each continent.  In North America alone, I can count three.
885330
north america, south america, europe, africa, asia, australia, antarctica
1076297
There are at least 8, maybe more. \n\nBritain/England\nCyprus\nEgypt\nFalkland Islands\nGibraltar\nLebanon\nSt Helens\nSyria
782571
there are 193 countries
889914
North America, South America, Asia, Australia, and Antarctica\n(it does NOT touch Europe or Africa)
20876
Asia Only          364,270,713  \nRest of the World  653,786,676\nWORLD TOTAL        1,018,057,389\n\nhttp://www.internetworldstats.com/stats3.htm
620813
Answer: At 10,390,000 sq km, it is the fifth largest continent\n\nAsia         44 310 000\nAfrica   30 300 000\nNorth America 24 480 000\nSouth America 17 840 000\nAntarctica 13 720 000\nEurope         10 390 000\nAustralia  8 500 000
924661
7 is what I learned in school.\nBut, some people do classify Eurasia as one continent since it's one large landmass divided only by the Ural Mountains (It's divided culturally, not really geographically.)... so that would make it 6, in a sense.
1059128
By Most Accounts, 192 is the Correct Answer\nA very frequent geographical question is "How many countries are in the world?." Different numbers pop up when one inquires or reads about the number of countries in the world. Each source you use often yields a different answer.\nUnited Nations\n\nThere are 191 members of the United Nations. Unfortunately, the number 191 is too often used to represent the number of countries in the world. Although this number represents almost all of the countries in the world, there is still one country (the Vatican City) that is independent and has chosen not to become a member of the U.N. so 191 is not the number of countries in the world.\n\nU.S. Department of State\n\nThe United States' State Department recognizes 192 independent countries around the world.
436828
I was also taught that there were 7:\n\nNorth America, South America, Africa, Asia, Europe, Antarctica, Australia.\n\nI was a student in American schools. I have also heard of the "Eurasia" concept of combining Europe and Asia.  In truth Europe and Asia are ONE continent but because of cultural and physical reasons (meaning Race), early Europeans who first listed the continents wanted to distinguish themselves from Asians and declared Europe a separate continent.
28237
Africa, Asia, Australia...and I suppose Antarctica.
383718
I think 45 continental states\n2 non-continental (HW, Alaska)\n3 commonwealths\n\nand various US properties like Puerto Rico and Guam\ncould be wrong on the commonwealth number