Europe has 47 independent countries of all sizes, from the largest in the world in land area, Russia, to the smallest, Vatican City.
About one of every eight people in the world lives in Europe.
However, the population of Europe is slowly declining, while most of the rest of the world is growing.
In 2000, there were 703 million people living in Europe.
The earliest hominid discovered in Europe lived about 1.8 million years ago in Georgia.
Europe is the second smallest continent in the world by surface area, covering about 3,930,000 square miles.
