Oceania

     From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

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.

Table of contents

1 Map 2 Countries 3 External links

Map

Countries

Countries of Oceania include:

• Australia
• Federated States of Micronesia
• Fiji
• Kiribati
• Marshall Islands
• Nauru
• New Zealand
• Northern Mariana Islands
• Palau
• Papua New Guinea
• Samoa
• Solomon Islands
• Tonga
• Vanuatu

Territories in Oceania belonging to other continent´s countries 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)

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)	(2002-07-01 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

• South Pacific Organizer
• Map South Pacific

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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.