Asia contains 55 countries, of which 49 are UN members, 1 is an observer, and four are nonmembers. — By Michael Sutherland Asia is the world’s largest continent, covering 44,579,000 sq km/17,212,000 sq mi, about 30% of the world’s land area (8.7% of the globe’s surface), and holding 4.7 billion people, about 59% of the world’s total population. It contains the world’s largest country by area, Russia, and its…