North America Third largest continent in the world, North America extends from the Arctic Circle in the north to the Tropic of Cancer in the south. The name ‘America’ was inspired by the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci, one of the earliest European explorers of the New World. The continent has a total population of 428 million. This includes the United States, which, with 290 million citizens, is both the third most populous and by far the richest country in the world. Next