Madagascar is considered to be part of which continent?

Madagascar is considered part of the continent of Africa, although it is an island country in the Indian Ocean.

The island lies off Africa’s southeastern coast, separated from Mozambique by the Mozambique Channel. Its continental classification is African because Madagascar is geographically and politically associated with Africa, and it is a member of African regional institutions. Its capital and largest city is Antananarivo.

Madagascar’s physical separation gives it an unusual geological story. It broke away from the ancient southern supercontinent Gondwana, splitting from Africa roughly 180 million years ago and separating from the Indian subcontinent much later. That long isolation allowed many species to evolve nowhere else.

More than 90 percent of Madagascar’s wildlife is considered endemic, including lemurs, several chameleon species and the fossa. This exceptional biodiversity sometimes leads writers to call Madagascar the “eighth continent,” but that is an informal nickname, not its standard geographic classification. The accepted quiz answer remains Africa.