There are 7 continents in the world in the most commonly used modern model: Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Europe, North America, South America, and Australia/Oceania.

Quick Scoop

  • Most school systems today teach a 7-continent model.
  • Some geographers and regions of the world use 5- or 6-continent models instead.
  • Despite those variations, “7 continents” is the dominant answer in education, media, and most atlases.

Why the Number Can Differ

Many disagreements come from how people define a continent.

  • Some combine Europe and Asia into “Eurasia” because the landmass is continuous.
  • Some merge North and South America into a single “America.”
  • A few models group everything into as few as four mega-continents, like Afro-Eurasia and the Americas.

The Standard 7

Here is the widely taught 7-continent list:

  • Africa
  • Antarctica
  • Asia
  • Europe
  • North America
  • South America
  • Australia/Oceania

These seven are what you will usually see in textbooks, school quizzes, and general “how many continents in the world” forum discussions today.

TL;DR: When someone asks “how many continents in the world,” the expected answer is 7 , even though geographers sometimes debate alternative ways of counting them.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.