Oceania
The classification of Papua New Guinea is sometimes disputed. Geographically, the majority of the eastern half of the island belongs to Asia. However, other parts are located in the Solomon Islands chain and therefore in Oceania. Politically, it is often assigned to Australia.
Oceania consists of 29 countries with a total area of nine million km² (three million sqm). Of these 29, 17 are sovereign states and a further 12 are dependent territories. The land mass corresponds to around 5.7% of the earth's total habitable surface. The coastlines in and around Oceania have a total length of 72,326 km (72,326 mi).
Oceania is home to 44.79 million people, which makes up around 0.6% of the world's population. The majority of these are in Australia and New Zealand.
Australia + New Zealand
AustraliaChristmas Island ¹Cocos (Keeling) Islands ¹Heard Island and McDonald Islands ¹New ZealandNorfolk Island ¹Antarctica
AntarcticaFrench Southern and Antarctic Lands ¹The Antarctic region is not actually part of Oceania, but is included here. Geographically, Antarctica is the area south of the Arctic Circle, i.e. below 66.57° south latitude. The ice masses around the South Pole are stateless. However, there are numerous research stations from various countries.
Geology of Oceania
From a tectonic point of view, Oceania is not a single continent, as the area is spread over several continental plates. The largest is the Pacific Plate, which borders the Australian Plate to the south and the Philippine Plate to the west. All three are also surrounded by several small plates. Along the large island chains (New Zealand, Solomon Islands, Philippines, Japan), the Pacific Fire Belt has formed at the plate transitions. This is an area in which eruptions repeatedly cause strong earthquakes and volcanic eruptions and, as a result, tsunamis. This is also how large parts of today's oceanic land masses were formed, which often protrude as the tip of volcanoes out of the water, which is otherwise on average 4000 meters deep. Less frequently, tectonic plates also move into the Earth's interior. This is how the Mariana Trench, located in eastern Micronesia, formed with a depth of up to 11 kilometers.Demarcation between Oceania and Australia and New Zealand
The United Nations divides the world into various superordinate and subordinate regions. One of the main regions is "Oceania", which includes the individual areas of "Australia and New Zealand", Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia. In general, Oceania is considered a continent.Australia is usually only associated with the largest land mass of the Australian country, but it actually consists of several individual countries. Our classification above corresponds to that of the UN and includes 4 other Australian territories in addition to Australia and New Zealand. These include the Heard and McDonald Islands, which are also geographically part of Antarctica.
Population
The indigenous population in the numerous economic and living areas of Oceania is constantly decreasing. Due to industrialization and the strategically favourable location between Asia and America, more and more colonies have been founded in Polynesia, Melanesia and Micronesia over the last 200 years, bringing mainly Chinese, Indian and Filipino inhabitants to the region. In the southern areas outside Australia and New Zealand, the proportion of Europeans has now risen to over 50%. Nevertheless, native Papuan speakers still make up the largest proportion of the total Oceanian population.European immigrants and their descendants also make up the largest proportion of the population in New Zealand, at over 60%. This is followed by the indigenous Māori group, who originally come mainly from Polynesia.
In Australia, the proportion of the indigenous population is significantly lower at around 2%. Here, over 90% of the population is of European (mainly British and Irish) descent. However, the proportion of Asians has increased slightly in recent years to around 7%.
Most widely spoken native languages in Oceania
| Language | Percentage | Population |
|---|---|---|
| English | 54.1 % | 24.2 M |
| Papuan languages | 8.6 % | 3.9 M |
| Chinese | 1.9 % | 0.9 M |
| Melanesian languages | 1.5 % | 0.7 M |
| Hindi | 1.1 % | 0.5 M |
| Fijian | 1.1 % | 0.5 M |