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Oceania (sometimes Oceanica) is a geographical, often geopolitical, region consisting of numerous lands—mostly islands but usually including Australia—in the Pacific Ocean and vicinity. The exact scope of Oceania is defined variously, with interpretations including Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea, and various islands of the Malay Archipelago.

For the oceans of the Earth, see Oceans.

Overview

The primary use of the term Oceania is to describe a macrogeographical region that lies between Asia and the Americas, with the Australian continent as the major landmass and consisting of some 25,000 islands in the Pacific. The name Oceania is used because, unlike the other regional groupings, it is the ocean and adjacent seas rather than a continent that link the lands together.

Extent

Originally coined by the French explorer Dumont d'Urville in 1831, Oceania has been traditionally divided into Micronesia, Melanesia, Polynesia, and Australasia. As with any region, however, interpretations vary; increasingly, geographers and scientists divide Oceania into Near Oceania and Remote Oceania.

Most of Oceania consists of small island nations. Australia is the only continental country; by some definitions, Indonesia has land borders with Papua New Guinea, East Timor, and Malaysia.

Territories and regions

Name of territory, with flag	Area (km²)	Population (1 July 2002 estimate)	Population density (per km²)	Capital
Australasia
Australia	7,686,850	19,546,792	2.5	Canberra
Christmas Island (Australia)	135	474	3.5	The Settlement
Cocos (Keeling) Islands (Australia)	14	632	45.1	West Island
New Zealand	268,680	3,908,037	14.5	Wellington
Norfolk Island (Australia)	35	1,866	53.3	Kingston
Melanesia
Fiji	18,270	856,346	46.9	Suva
Indonesia	745,798	28,159,300	37.8	Jakarta
New Caledonia (France)	19,060	207,858	10.9	Nouméa
Papua New Guinea	462,840	5,172,033	11.2	Port Moresby
Solomon Islands	28,450	494,786	17.4	Honiara
East Timor	15,007	952,618	63.5	Dili
Vanuatu	12,200	196,178	16.1	Port Vila
Micronesia
Federated States of Micronesia	702	135,869	193.5	Palikir
Guam (USA)	549	160,796	292.9	Hagåtña
Kiribati	811	96,335	118.8	Bairiki
Marshall Islands	181	73,630	406.8	Majuro
Nauru	21	12,329	587.1	Yaren
Northern Mariana Islands (USA)	477	77,311	162.1	Saipan
Palau	458	19,409	42.4	Koror
Polynesia
American Samoa (USA)	199	68,688	345.2	Fagatogo, Utulei
Cook Islands (NZ)	240	20,811	86.7	Avarua
French Polynesia (France)	4,167	257,847	61.9	Papeete
Niue (NZ)	260	2,134	8.2	Alofi
Pitcairn Islands (UK)	5	47	1.0	Adamstown
Samoa	2,944	178,631	60.7	Apia
Tokelau (NZ)	10	1,431	143.1	—
Tonga	748	106,137	141.9	Nuku'alofa
Tuvalu	26	11,146	428.7	Vaiaku
Wallis and Futuna (France)	274	15,585	56.9	Mata-Utu
Total	9,269,453	60,735,056	6.6

Notes:

1. Regions and constituents as per UN categorisations/map except note 2. Depending on definitions, various territories cited below (notes 3-5) may be in one or both of Oceania and Asia or North America.
   
2. The use of this term is disputed. The UN designation for this subregion is "Australia and New Zealand."
3. ^ Christmas Island and Cocos (Keeling) Islands are Australian external territories in the Indian Ocean southwest of Indonesia.
   
4. New Zealand is often considered part of Polynesia rather than Australasia.
   
5.   Indonesia is generally considered a transcontinental country in Southeastern Asia and Oceania (Melanesia); population and area figures are for Oceanian portion only, east of the Wallace line.
   
6. Papua New Guinea is often considered part of Australasia as well as Melanesia.
   
7.   East Timor is sometimes considered a transcontinental country. It is geographically in Oceania (Melanesia), but has historical, social, and political connections with Southeastern Asia.
   
8. Excludes the US state of Hawaii, which is distant from the North American landmass in the Pacific Ocean and frequently reckoned in this region.
   
9. Fagatogo is the legislative and judicial seat of American Samoa; Utulei is the executive seat.
   
10. Tokelau, a domain of New Zealand, has no capital: each atoll has its own administrative centre.
    

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. The term "Australasia" invariably includes Australia, and usually includes New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, and parts of Oceania, but this term is sometimes controversial outside of Australia, as it may be seen as indicating a link with Asia - a completely separate continent, or too greatly emphasising Australia. "Austral" means "of, relating to, or coming from the south", and is the common root of both Australia and Australasia.
• Hawaii is correctly included in Oceania. Hawaiians are a Polynesian race and, although the Hawaiian Islands are some distance from most of the islands of Oceania, they are still physically as well as culturally much closer to the rest of Oceania than to North America - and they are no further from the rest of Oceania than from United States territories in the North Pacific.
• The few U.S. territories in the North Pacific are uninhabited except by itinerant service personnel, and are normally grouped with the mainland United States in North America. They are certainly not part of Oceania and, unlike Hawaii, they are closer to North America - most of them closer to North America than they are to Hawaii.
• Easter Island is a Polynesian island in the eastern Pacific Ocean, part of the territory of Chile, and is correctly included in Oceania.
• New Zealand is within the Polynesian triangle and in this sense is part of Polynesia - the Māori of New Zealand constitute one of the major cultures of Polynesia.
• On very rare occasions the term may be stretched even further to include other Pacific island groups such as the Aleutian Islands, but these are obviously islands off the coast of North America. It would be just as logical to include the Pacific islands of Russia, all of Japan and the Philippines, insular Malyasia, and all of Indonesia as part of Oceania, as to include the Aleutians.

Ecogeography

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.

Sport

The Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) is one of six football confederations under the auspices of FIFA, the international governing body of football (soccer). The OFC is the only confederation without an automatic qualification to the World Cup Finals. Currently the winner of the OFC must play-off against a South American confederation side.

Oceania has only been represented at three World Cup Finals - Australia in 1974, New Zealand in 1982 and Australia in 2006. However, Australia is now no longer a member of the Oceania Football Confederation, having joined the Asian Football Confederation in 2006.

See also

• Portal:Oceania
• Culture of Oceania
• Economy of Oceania
• Flags of Oceania
• History of Oceania
• Australasia
• New Zealand
• Australia (continent)
• Pacific Islands
• Pacific Islands Forum

External links

• Jane's Oceania Home Page
• Oceania photos and information
• Open-Site Oceania - Information about the different countries of Oceania.
• Oceania Paper Money

• Oceania
• Country classifications