East Asia (Paperback)

East Asia or Eastern Asia is a subregion of Asia that can be defined in either geographical or cultural terms. Geographically and geo-politically, it covers about 12,000,000 km2 (4,600,000 sq mi), or about 28 percent of the Asian continent, about 15 percent bigger than the area of Europe. More than 1.5 billion people, about 38 percent of the population of Asia or 22 percent of all the people in the world, live in geographic East Asia. This is about twice the population that Europe has. The region is one of the world's most populated places, with a population density of 131 inhabitants per square kilometre (340 /sq mi), being about three times the world average of 45 /km2 (120 /sq mi). Using the UN subregion definitions, it ranks second in population only to Southern Asia. Historically, many societies in East Asia have been part of the Chinese cultural sphere, and East Asian vocabulary and scripts are often derived from Classical Chinese and Chinese script. In some contexts, Vietnam is considered part of East Asia citation needed] because of the significant Chinese cultural influence it had experienced.