<Tr> <Th> Romanization </Th> <Td> Vostochnaja Azija </Td> </Tr> <P> East Asia is the eastern subregion of the Asian continent, which can be defined in either geographical or ethno - cultural terms . Geographically and geopolitically, it includes China (including Hong Kong and Macau), Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan; it covers about 12,000,000 km (4,600,000 sq mi), or about 28% of the Asian continent . </P> <P> The East Asian people comprise around 1.6 billion people . About 38% of the population of Asia and 22%, or over one fifth, of all the people in the world live in East Asia . Although the coastal and riparian areas of the region form one of the world's most populated places, the population in Mongolia and Western China, both landlocked areas, is very sparsely distributed, with Mongolia having the lowest population density of a sovereign state . The overall population density of the region is 133 inhabitants per square kilometre (340 / sq mi), about three times the world average of 45 / km (120 / sq mi). </P> <P> Historically, 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 . Major religions include Buddhism (mostly Mahayana), Confucianism or Neo-Confucianism, Taoism, Chinese folk religion in China and Taiwan, Shinto in Japan, Korean shamanism in Korea . Shamanism is also prevalent among Mongolians and other indigenous populations of northern East Asia such as Manchus, Ewenki, even large Han in this area . Islam is popular in Northwest China and Kazaks in Mongolia. The Chinese calendar is the root from which many other East Asian calendars are derived . </P>

What percentage of the world's population lives in east asia