Afro-Eurasia,
Afroeurasia, or
Eurafrasia, known in
antiquity as the
Ecumene and most commonly known since the
Age of Exploration as the
Old World, is the largest
landmass on
Earth, primarily in the
Northern and
Eastern Hemispheres. The term is a
portmanteau of its constituent parts:
Africa and
Eurasia, the latter conventionally divided into
Europe and
Asia. Afro-Eurasia encompasses 84,980,532 square kilometers (32,811,166 sq mi) and has a population of approximately 6 billion people which is roughly 85% of the
world population. In
geopolitical contexts, it is sometimes known as the
World Island, a term coined by
H.J. Mackinder.