ShareYourGroupShareYourGroupCountries

Countries of Oceania

Oceania covers Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea and thousands of islands spread across the Pacific Ocean. The islands are usually grouped into Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia. Most of its countries are small island nations.

The region in numbers

This region has 27 entries on this site, of which 14 are member states of the United Nations. Together they hold about 47.3 million people, roughly 1 percent of the world total, on about 8.51 million square kilometres of land. Australia has the most people (about 27.6 million). Australia is the largest by area (7,686,850 km²), and Nauru is the smallest member state (21 km²).

Australia and New Zealand

Melanesia

Micronesia

Polynesia

The sub-regions compared

Sub-regionEntriesPeopleShare of the regionMost people
Australia and New Zealand532.9 million70%Australia
Melanesia513.2 million28%Papua New Guinea
Polynesia10702,1251%French Polynesia
Micronesia7528,6811%Guam

Rich and poor, crowded and empty

By GDP per person among member states, the highest figures in the data are Australia ($65,100), New Zealand ($49,600), Palau ($19,500), and the lowest are Solomon Islands ($2,100), Kiribati ($2,600), Papua New Guinea ($3,000). A baby can expect the longest life in Australia (83.1 years) and the shortest in Nauru (62.3 years), a gap of 21 years inside one region. The most crowded member state is Nauru, with about 573 people to each square kilometre, and the emptiest is Australia, with about 3.6. Figures are World Bank values for the year shown on each country page.

Borders, languages, money and time

Papua New Guinea has the most land neighbours in the region, 1 of them. 13 member states have no land border in the data, being islands or groups of islands: Australia, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, New Zealand, Palau, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu. The languages listed for the most places here are English (24), French (4), Samoan (3), Chinese (3). The most widely shared money is the Australian dollar, the main currency of 7 entries. Clocks in the region run from UTC-11:00 to UTC+14:00, a spread of 25 hours.

Compare the countries of Oceania

CountryCapitalRegionPopulationArea km²People per km²GDP per person US$
American SamoaPago PagoOceania46,02919923118,017
AustraliaCanberraOceania27,614,4117,686,8503.665,130
Christmas IslandFlying Fish CoveOceania1,50013511no value
Cocos (Keeling) IslandsWest IslandOceania6281445no value
Cook IslandsAvaruaOceania21,38824089no value
FijiSuvaOceania933,15418,270516,642
French PolynesiaPapeetēOceania282,4654,1676822,440
GuamHagåtñaOceania168,99954930841,833
KiribatiSouth TarawaOceania136,4888111682,559
Marshall IslandsMajuroOceania36,2821812008,489
MicronesiaPalikirOceania113,6837021624,414
NauruYarenOceania12,0252157314,640
New CaledoniaNouméaOceania295,33319,0601529,213
New ZealandWellingtonOceania5,324,700268,6802049,591
NiueAlofiOceania2,1662608.3no value
Norfolk IslandKingstonOceania1,8283553no value
Northern Mariana IslandsSaipanOceania43,5414779123,786
PalauNgerulmudOceania17,6634583919,532
Papua New GuineaPort MoresbyOceania10,762,817462,840233,020
Pitcairn IslandsAdamstownOceania46471.0no value
SamoaApiaOceania219,3062,944745,873
Solomon IslandsHoniaraOceania838,64528,450292,086
TokelauFakaofoOceania1,46610147no value
TongaNuku'alofaOceania103,7427481396,547
TuvaluFunafutiOceania9,492263656,041
VanuatuPort VilaOceania335,16912,200274,039
Wallis and FutunaMata-UtuOceania16,02527458no value