Europe

By convention, Europe is one of the seven continents in the world. Europe is the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia and is generally separated from Asia by the watersheds of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting the Black and Aegean Seas.

Europe is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and the Black Sea and associated waterways to the southeast. Still, the borders of Europe - a concept dating back to ancient times - are somewhat arbitrary, as the primarily physiographic term 'continent' can include cultural and political elements.

Europe is the second smallest continent in the world by area, covering about 10,180,000 square kilometers (3,930,000 sq mi) or 2% of the Earth's surface and about 6.8% of its land area. Of the 50 or so countries in Europe, Russia is by far the largest in terms of both area and population, occupying 40% of the continent (although the country has territories in both Europe and Asia), while Vatican City is the smallest. Europe is the third largest continent after Asia and Africa with a population of 733 million or about 11% of the world's population.

Business

The economy of Europe comprises more than 731 million people in 48 different countries. As on other continents, the prosperity of European countries also varies, although the poorest countries are significantly higher in terms of GDP and living standards than the poorest countries on other continents. Europe's prosperity disparities are roughly reflected in the Cold War-era gap, with some countries breaking this gap (Portugal, Slovenia and the Czech Republic). While most European countries have a GDP per capita above the world average and are very highly developed (Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, Andorra, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, Switzerland), some European economies, despite their location, are above the world average ( except (for Moldova and Turkey) in the Human Development Index (Armenia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Kazakhstan) still catching up with the leading European countries.

The European countries with a long trading history, a free market system and a high level of development in the last century are generally located in the north and west of the continent. They tend to be more prosperous and more stable than the countries of southern and eastern Europe, although the gap is narrowing, particularly in central and eastern Europe, partly due to higher growth rates, but also partly due to the balancing effect offered by the European Union.

Europe had a nominal GDP of US$19.920 trillion in 2010 (30.2% of world GDP). Europe's largest economy is that of Germany, which ranks fourth in the world in nominal GDP and fifth in purchasing power parity (PPP) GDP. It is followed by France, which ranks fifth in the world in terms of nominal GDP, followed by the United Kingdom, which ranks sixth in the world in terms of nominal GDP, followed by Italy, which ranks seventh in the world in terms of nominal GDP, and then Russia, which ranks seventh in terms of nominal GDP GDP ranks tenth in the world.

Of the 500 largest corporations measured by sales (Fortune Global 500 in 2010), 184 have their headquarters in Europe. 161 are in the EU, 15 in Switzerland, 6 in Russia, 1 in Turkey, 1 in Norway.