Oceania Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description

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

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 usage includes islands such as Japan and the Aleutian Islands. Although the islands of Oceania do not form part of a true continent, Oceania is sometimes associated with the continent of Australia for the purposes of dividing the whole world into continental groupings. 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. These traditional divisions are no more in use amongst researchers, that prefer to divide Oceania into Near Oceania and Remote 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.

Every country but one in Oceania is borderless. The exception is Papua New Guinea which borders Indonesia.

Table of contents

1 Map 2 Regions and Countries 3 Population density 4 External links

Map

See also: World map

Regions and Countries

The traditional subdivision of Oceania into Micronesia, Melanesia and Polynesia (by the French Dumont d'Urville in 1831) is no more recognised as correct by most geographers and scientists, but it is still the most popular one:

Micronesia

• Palau
• Micronesia
• Marshall Islands
• Nauru
• Kiribati

Melanesia

• Papua New Guinea
• Solomon Islands
• Vanuatu
• Fiji

Polynesia

• Tuvalu
• Samoa
• Tonga
• New Zealand

Australia

Territories in Oceania that belong to countries of other continents include:

• American Samoa (United States)
• Easter Island (Chile)
• French Polynesia (France)
• Guam (United States)
• Hawaii (United States)
• New Caledonia (France)
• Northern Mariana Islands (United States)
• Pitcairn Islands (United Kingdom)
• Wallis and Futuna (France)

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
	(/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 photos & information
• South Pacific Organizer
• Map South Pacific
• Open-Site Oceania - Information about the different countries of Oceania.

This is an Article on Oceania. Page Contains Information, Facts Details or Explanation Guide About Oceania

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