Oceania

For the fictional superstate in George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, see Oceania (fiction).

For the CD single of the Björk song called Oceania, see Oceania (Single).

Missing image
Oceania-map.JPG

Map of Oceania.

Oceania is a geopolitical region consisting of countries and territories in the Pacific Ocean, usually including Australia.

Contents

1 Overview

2 Countries and Territories of Oceania

3 Other interpretations of Oceania

Overview

The primary use of the term Oceania is to describe a continental region (like Europe or Africa) that lies between Asia and the Americas, with Australia as the major land mass. The name Oceania is used, rather than Australia, because unlike the other continental groupings, it is the ocean rather than the continent that links the nations together. Oceania is the smallest continental grouping in land area and the second smallest, after Antarctica, in population.

Countries and Territories of Oceania

Oceania has been traditionally divided into Micronesia, Melanesia and Polynesia (originally by the French explorer Dumont d'Urville in 1831). This subdivision is no longer recognized as correct by most geographers and scientists — who prefer to divide Oceania into Near Oceania and Remote Oceania — but it is still the most popular one.

Most of Oceania consists of small island nations. Australia is the only continental country and Papua New Guinea is the only country with a land border, which it shares with the Indonesian province of West Papua.

The nations of Oceania have varying degrees of independence from their colonial powers and have negotiated a wide range of constitutional arrangements to suit their circumstances. The following list contains the countries and territories that are classified as part of Oceania by the United Nations; other countries are sometimes considered part of Oceania see Other Interpretations below.

Australia

Australia - Commonwealth Realm¹
Norfolk Island - external territory of Australia

Melanesia

Fiji - republic
New Caledonia - sui generis collectivity of France²
Papua New Guinea - Commonwealth Realm¹
Solomon Islands - Commonwealth Realm¹
Vanuatu - republic

Micronesia

Guam - organised, unincorporated territory of the United States
Kiribati - republic
Marshall Islands - republic in free association with the United States
Micronesia, Federated States of - republic in free association with the United States
Nauru - republic
Northern Mariana Islands - organised, unincorporated commonwealth in political union with the United States
Palau - republic in free association with the United States

Polynesia

American Samoa- unorganised, unincorporated territory of the United States
Cook Islands - self-governing state in free association with New Zealand
French Polynesia - "overseas country" of France²
Niue - self-governing state in free association with New Zealand
New Zealand - Commonwealth Realm¹
Pitcairn - overseas territory of the United Kingdom
Samoa - constitutional monarchy under Malietoa Tanumafili II
Tokelau - semi-autonomous territory of New Zealand
Tonga - absolute monarchy under King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV
Tuvalu - Commonwealth Realm¹
Wallis and Futuna Islands - overseas collectivity of France²

Notes:

Commonwealth Realms are independent constitutional monarchies in which Elizabeth II reigns as Queen
See administrative divisions of France

Other interpretations of Oceania

Australia is sometimes not included in Oceania, although a term like Pacific islands would normally be used to describe Oceania without Australia
Parts of the Malay archipelago and West Papua are sometimes included in Oceania as part of Melanesia, especially in an ethnic or linguistic context. Politically, however, these are usually grouped as Asian countries under South-east Asia.
Hawaii and the United States territories with no indigenous population in the North Pacific are sometimes included, but are normally grouped with the United States in North America. Hawaiians are a Polynesian race.
Easter Island is a Polynesian island in the eastern Pacific Ocean, part of the territory of Chile, and is sometimes included in Oceania.
On rare occasions the term may be stretched even further to include other Pacific island groups such as Japan or the Aleutian Islands.

Oceania in ecology

Oceania is one of eight terrestrial ecozones, which constitute the major ecological regions of the planet. The Oceania ecozone includes all of Micronesia, Fiji, and all of Polynesia except New Zealand. New Zealand, along with New Guinea and nearby islands, Australia, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, and New Caledonia, constitute the separate Australasia ecozone.

Population density

This is a list of countries/dependencies by population density in inhabitants/km².

Unlike the figures in the country articles, the figures in this table are based on areas including inland water bodies (lakes, reservoirs, rivers) and may therefore be lower here.

country	pop. dens.	area	population
	(/km²)	(km²)	(2002 est.)
Nauru	587	21	12,329
Tuvalu	429	26	11,146
Marshall Islands	407	181	73,630
American Samoa (US)	345	199	68,688
Guam (US)	293	549	160,796
Micronesia	194	702	135,869
Northern Mariana Islands (US)	162	477	77,311
Tokelau (N.Z.)	143	10	1,431
Tonga	142	748	106,137
Kiribati	119	811	96,335
Cook Islands (N.Z.)	87	240	20,811
East Timor	68	15,007	1,019,252
French Polynesia (Fr.)	62	4,167	257,847
Samoa	61	2,944	178,631
Wallis and Futuna (Fr.)	57	274	15,585
Norfolk Island (Aus)	53	35	1,866
Fiji	47	18,270	856,346
Cocos Islands (Aus) ¹	45	14	632
Palau	42	458	19,409
Solomon Islands	17	28,450	494,786
Vanuatu	16	12,200	196,178
New Zealand	15	268,680	3,908,037
Papua New Guinea	11	462,840	5,172,033
New Caledonia (Fr.)	11	19,060	207,858
Niue (N.Z.)	8.2	260	2,134
Christmas Island (Aus) ²	3.5	135	474
Australia	2.5	7,686,850	19,546,792
Pitcairn Islands (UK)	1.0	47	47
Total	3.7	8,523,655	32,642,390

¹ Located in the Indian Ocean, not in Oceania.
² This Christmas Island is in the Indian Ocean—not the one part of the Line Islands;
a territory of Kiribati

External links

Oceania photos and information (http://www.virtualoceania.net/)
South Pacific Organizer (http://www.southpacific.org/)
Map showing Oceania in relation with America (http://www.mc-monaco.com/geovoyages/r_zones/ocpacif/opac_map.jpg)
Map (http://www.1uptravel.com/worldmaps/pacific-ocean2.html)
Map South Pacific (http://www.mapsouthpacific.com/)
Open-Site Oceania (http://www.open-site.org/Regional/Oceania) - Information about the different countries of Oceania.
Jane's Oceania Home Page (http://www.janeresture.com/)

Continents and regions of the World
Africa \| Antarctica \| Australia \| Eurasia \| North America \| South America Africa-Eurasia \| the Americas \| Asia \| Europe \| Oceania

Regions of the world
Africa:	Central Africa \| Congo \| East Africa \| Great Lakes \| Guinea \| North Africa \| Northwest Africa \| Northeast Africa \| Sahel \| Southern Africa \| Sub-Saharan Africa \| Sudan \| West Africa
Americas:	Andean States \| Caribbean \| Central America \| Great Lakes \| Great Plains \| Guianas \| Latin America \| Southern Cone
Asia:	Central Asia \| East Asia \| East Indies \| Far East \| Indian subcontinent / South Asia \| North Asia \| Southeast Asia \| Southwest Asia (Middle East, Levant, Anatolia, Arabia)
Europe:	Balkans \| Baltic region \| Benelux \| British Isles \| Central Europe \| Eastern Europe \| Northern Europe \| Scandinavia \| Southern Europe \| Western Europe
Other:	Eurasia: Caucasus \| Post-Soviet states \| Oceania: Australasia \| Melanesia \| Micronesia \| Polynesia \| Aleutia \| Pacific Rim \| Polar: Arctic \| Antarctic