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Oceania is a name used for varying groups of islands of the Pacific Ocean. In its narrow usage it refers to Polynesia
(including New Zealand), Melanesia (including New Guinea) and Micronesia. In a wider usage it includes Australia. It may
also include the Malay archipelago. Uncommonly does usage include
islands such as Japan and the Aleutian Islands. Although the islands of Oceania do not form part of a true continent, for the purposes of dividing the whole world into continents Oceania is sometimes associated
with the continent of Australia. As such, it is the smallest continent in area and the
second smallest, after Antarctica, in population. This article primarily refers to the grouping of Polynesia, Melanesia, Micronesia and Australia.
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.
Almost every country in Oceania is borderless. The only exception is Papua New
Guinea, which borders Indonesia.
Map
See also: World map
Countries
Countries of Oceania |Regions: (with
capitals)
Micronesia-
Melanesia-
Polynesia-
Australasia-
Territories in Oceania belonging to other continents' countries include:
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 |
| |
(/kmē) |
(kmē) |
(2002-07-01 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 |
| 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) |
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 (1) |
8.2 |
260 |
2,134 |
| Christmas Island (Aus) |
3.5 |
135 |
474 |
| Australia |
2.5 |
7,686,850 |
19,546,792 |
| Pitcairn Islands (UK) |
1.0 |
47 |
47 |
(1) Niue has strong ties with New Zealand
- See also: History of Oceania
External Links
Oceania is also one of the three super-states in George
Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, and is
the location of the novel's version of London where Winston Smith, the main character
lives. It is composed of the two American continents, the British Isles, and the southern half of Africa below the Congo River.
It also controls to a different degree at various times during the course of its eternal war with Eurasia and Eastasia: polar
regions, the islands of the Pacific, Antartic regions; it occasionally conquers the rest of Africa, but is later driven back by
Eurasia. Oceania doesn't have a single capital, although what could be seen as regional capitals such as London are in place.
(See: Goldstein's book.)
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