Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent. It covers 8.6% of the Earth's total surface area (or 29.4% of its land area) and it contains more than 60% of the world's current human population.

Chiefly in the eastern and northern hemispheres, Asia is traditionally defined as part of the landmass of Africa-Eurasia – with the western portion of the latter occupied by Europe – lying east of the Suez Canal, east of the Ural Mountains, and south of the Caucasus Mountains and the Caspian and Black Seas. It is bounded to the east by the Pacific Ocean, to the south by the Indian Ocean, and to the north by the Arctic Ocean.

Asia has the 3rd largest GDP of all continents, after North America and Europe. With its large population, it certainly has the potential to be the 1st within a few decades. As of 2007, the largest national economy within Asia, in terms of gross domestic product (PPP), is that of China followed by that of India and Japan. However, in nominal terms (which reflects economic reality and power), they rank as follows: Japan, China, South Korea, India, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Indonesia. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the economies of China[29] and India have been growing rapidly, both with an average annual growth rate of more than 8%. Other recent very high growth nations in Asia include Vietnam, Mongolia, Uzbekistan and mineral rich nations such as Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Brunei, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Oman. Historically, Japan has had the largest economy in Asia and second-largest of any single nation in the world, after surpassing the Soviet Union (measured in net material product) in 1986 and Germany in 1968. (NB: A number of supernational economies are larger, such as the EU, NAFTA or APEC). In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Japan's economy was almost as large as that of the rest of the continent combined. In 1995, Japan's economy nearly equalled that of the USA to tie the largest economy in the world for a day, after the Japanese currency reached a record high of 79 yen. Economic growth in Asia since World War II to the 1990s had been concentrated in quite a few countries of the Pacific Rim, earning their reputations as "Tiger" economies or "Asian miracle" economies. (Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, and S.Korea)

It is expected that China will surpass Japan to have the largest nominal and PPP-adjusted GDP in Asia within a decade. India may overtake Japan by 2030.