Oceania

Oceania is the smallest continental region on Earth. It covers about 8,525,989 km² (3.29 million square miles) of land, only around 5.7% of the world’s land area, and is home to roughly 45 million people across 14 sovereign nations. Most of Oceania is ocean: thousands of islands scattered across the vast Pacific.

Where is Oceania?

Oceania lies in the south-western Pacific Ocean, south-east of Asia. The region is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the west, the Pacific Ocean to the north and east, and the Southern Ocean to the south. Australia is the only country that is also a continent in its own right.

Oceania’s geography

Oceania is usually divided into four sub-regions:

• Australasia, Australia and New Zealand. Australia is the world’s sixth-largest country and an entire continent unto itself, with deserts in the centre (the Outback), tropical rainforest in the north, and Mediterranean climates along the southern coast. New Zealand sits 2,000 km to the south-east, with the snowy Southern Alps and the volcanic landscapes that doubled as Middle-earth in The Lord of the Rings.
• Melanesia, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, the Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu. Volcanic, mountainous, and home to incredible cultural diversity (Papua New Guinea alone has over 800 languages).
• Micronesia, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Palau, and Nauru. Small, low-lying coral atolls scattered across the central Pacific.
• Polynesia, the giant ocean triangle anchored by Hawaii, New Zealand, and Easter Island. Includes Samoa, Tonga, and Tuvalu.

The Great Barrier Reef off Australia’s north-east coast is the world’s largest coral reef system, visible from space. Uluru (Ayers Rock) in central Australia is a 348 m sandstone monolith sacred to the Aboriginal Anangu people. Mount Wilhelm in Papua New Guinea (4,509 m) is Oceania’s highest peak.

People, languages, and religions

Oceania is home to the world’s oldest continuous cultures: Aboriginal Australians have lived on their continent for at least 65,000 years. The Māori are the indigenous people of New Zealand. Hundreds of Polynesian, Melanesian, and Micronesian peoples each have their own language and traditions. English is the most widely-spoken European language, but Tok Pisin, French, Māori, Fijian, Samoan, and Tongan are also official in various nations. Most Pacific islanders are Christian, the result of 19th-century missionary work.

Wildlife

Oceania is famous for animals found nowhere else. Australia is home to kangaroos, koalas, wombats, platypuses, and the deadly saltwater crocodile. New Zealand has the flightless kiwi, the kakapo, and the tuatara. The Pacific waters teem with whales, sharks, manta rays, and turtles.

Famous landmarks

Oceania’s most iconic sights include the Sydney Opera House, the Sydney Harbour Bridge, Uluru, the Great Barrier Reef, New Zealand’s Milford Sound and Tongariro National Park, the Bora Bora lagoon in French Polynesia, and the volcanic peaks of Hawaii (politically part of the United States but geographically in the Pacific).

Explore Oceanian countries

Pick any of the 14 sovereign countries below for its complete fact file.