Eurasia’s population and political map
About 5.5 billion people now live in Eurasia (the book gives 5.18 billion for 2016); that is the large majority of Earth’s population, about 70 %. Eurasia leads other continents in density: an average of about 100 people per km². The most densely settled areas are the Indian subcontinent, the Great Plain of China and Europe; the north, mountains and deserts are very sparsely settled. People are divided into peoples by language, culture and way of life: in Europe there are Germanic, Romance and Slavic language groups, in Asia the Chinese and Indians are the most numerous peoples; Uzbeks, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Turkmen, Azerbaijanis, Turks, Tatars, Karakalpaks and others belong to the Turkic family. Eurasia has more than 90 states. The largest by area are Russia (17.1 million km², partly in Europe and mostly in Asia) and China (9.6 million km²); the smallest are the Vatican (about 0.44 km²) and Liechtenstein (about 160 km²). By population the leaders are India (about 1.45 billion, first in the world since 2023), China (about 1.41 billion; the book lists China first), then Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Russia and Japan. The political map formed over a long historical process and keeps changing.
“State ranking”: from the map find Eurasia’s five largest and three smallest states by area and write their capitals.